Staff photo / Ed Runyan Jabron Perry, 20, reacts Thursday afternoon to being found not guilty of all three counts of felonious assault at the end of a nonjury trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Visiting Judge W. Wyatt McKay found Jabron L. Perry, 20, of Youngstown not guilty of all three counts of felonious assault Thursday afternoon after a nonjury trial.

Perry was believed to have fired 26 shots during a 5:21 a.m. melee at an afterparty at a business on Market Street on Aug. 17, 2025, that left three women with gunshot wounds, some of them serious.

McKay, a retired Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge, heard the case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court without a jury at Curry’s request, announcing his verdict about 4 p.m., about an hour after the trial ended. Curry could have gotten about 30 years in prison if he had been convicted.

But McKay said he found that Curry and six other men who fired at least 68 shots for 22 seconds toward the three females “must have shared” the belief that they were in danger of death “because they all shot in the direction of where the first shots were fired, and Curry had no duty to retreat under threat of deadly force.”

McKay’s remark about the “first shots” referred to testimony that one of the three female victims fired two “warning shots” in the air at a point where a large group of people were closing in on them after fist fighting and arguing took place.

McKay said prosecutors argued that the woman never pointed her gun at the other shooters. But there was “simply no evidence introduced of what (the woman) was doing with that gun after” she fired the two warning shots. “There was no proof that she did not point the firearm at the defendant or the (other) shooters. No one paid attention, and even Detective (Chad) Zubal said he surmised that that (the woman) had the firearm for longer than the defendant was shooting,” McKay said.

The prosecution did not prove that the ongoing threat of the victim who was armed with a gun and shot a gun wasn’t a clear and present danger for at least as long as she possessed the gun.

Much of the testimony in the case came Wednesday when all three victims testified, as well as a woman who described what she saw during the melee, which involved about 100 people near the intersection with Philadelphia Avenue.

OPENING STATEMENTS

In opening statements in the trial Wednesday, Assistant Prosecutor Mark Carfolo provided an overview of the case, which Youngstown police described at the time involving a “large crowd of people” and women aged 29, 27 and 32 being in stable condition after being shot. Other police departments came to the scene to assist with crowd control.

Carfolo said it happened near 2935 Market St., much of it in the parking lot. Carfolo said the injuries “were at times life-threatening” and rose to the level of “serious physical harm, which meets the definition of felonious assault.”

Carfolo said the prosecution believes there were “multiple shooters. It was a very chaotic scene.” Zubal testified about seven young males who fired about 68 shots over 22 seconds. One of the victims is believed to have fired two “warning shots” into the air before the shots from the males occurred, according to testimony.

Carfolo said the investigation “might still be ongoing” regarding other participants, but Curry was charged “based upon the information” Youngstown police received from witnesses and video evidence.

“It’s the state of Ohio’s position that Jabron Curry was one of those multiple shooters that day,” Carfolo said.

Curry filed a “motion for self defense,” which Carfolo said “denotes that he places himself at the scene … with a weapon … firing that weapon.”

Carfolo said the prosecution believes Curry’s actions and conduct were the “probable cause” of the injuries to the three women. Carfolo said he believes the evidence will show that Curry “fired in their direction” and the injuries to the women were the “proximate or probable” result of that conduct.

Curry’s attorney, Rhys Cartwright-Jones, said the strongest argument against conviction of his client is that “No one will testify, and no one can prove that any (bullet) that Mr. Curry fired entered the bodies of any alleged victim. There will be no ballistic proof, no gunshot residue proof. And I anticipate that there will be no testimony.”

Cartwright-Jones said one reason this is true is that there were at least 68 spent bullet casings found at the “chaotic” scene where this happened. He said even if proof is provided that Curry fired into anyone’s body, “Mr. Curry was certainly not the first shooter” because another person did that.

“I don’t think in those circumstances with 68 rounds fired and the fog of the street fight resembling a small war (zone), that we can say beyond a reasonable doubt that (Curry) didn’t act in self defense,” Cartwright-Jones said.

VICTIMS

One of the women who suffered gunshot wounds testified she was shot during “an altercation” involving a “bunch of different people.” She said more than 100 people were there. She did not know what the argument was about. She heard “a lot” of gunshots.

She was shot five times — twice in her wrist, once in her leg and twice in her knee. When asked how severe her injuries were, she said, “I had to learn to walk again” and the doctors considered amputating her leg. She was in the hospital for about two weeks.

The woman said she heard two warning shots, but she did not know who fired them. She denied that she was involved in any fighting. She agreed when Cartwright Jones listed the names of three males who were “possible shooters.” She agreed that she does not know who shot her.

Another of the victims said she was near a liquor establishment with her sister at an “after hours” location where people would meet “after the clubs” close. She told Carfolo she was shot seven times — four times in the chest, two times in her buttocks and once in her ankle.

She said the situation involved a lot of people arguing and physically fighting and then “gunshots broke out.” She denied having shot a gun in the altercation when both the prosecution and defense questioned her.

Cartwright-Jones asked her if she disputes what another witness said — that she fired two shots in the incident.

“I don’t recall,” the woman said. Later she denied having handled a firearm.

Another of the victims said she did not remember if there was yelling or arguing. She said she heard “a lot” of gunshots but could not say how many.

She could not remember where the shots were coming from because she had been drinking a lot, she said. She first realized she had been shot several minutes after the gunfire when she felt blood on her thigh.

When she was asked if there were “two warning shots” fired at some point she said “probably,” but she could not “remember that night at all.”

She said she did not remember when Cartwright-Jones asked if one of the two other women who were shot fired a gun that morning.

Cartwright-Jones asked if shots were fired by “several men,” and she said she did not remember.

NONVICTIM WITNESS

A female witness who did not suffer any gunshot wounds testified that she saw a fist fight break out near the drive through of the liquor business. She is familiar with the three women who suffered gunshot wounds, she said. None of the three victims were involved in the fighting initially, she said.

When the initial fighting stopped, she heard two of the shooting victims arguing with two other females. The three women who were shot left the area and then came back, the witness said.

The witness said one of the gunshot victims told the crowd that no one was going to fight her sister, and they would have to fight her. A lot of people started to approach the area, which was apparently near or in the street. One of the sisters/victims fired a gun two times in the air, the witness said.

“Then I saw a lot of (young) guys coming up on them and making them a target, and now everybody is targeting them and they are shooting at all of the girls,” she said.

The witness described what the three victims did after they were shot. One of them asked the witness to take her to the hospital. But at about that time, another of the victims asked the witness if she had been shot. The witness told her she had two bullet holes in her breast. That victim gave a gun to the witness, who put it in the back seat of her car.

The third gunshot victim had bullet holes in her legs but no exit wounds, the witness said. A police officer had a tourniquet to apply to one of the victim’s legs. But the witness gave him a belt from her car to use on the other leg. All three women were taken to the hospital by ambulance, the witness said.