Staff report

WARREN — A Warren man accused in the Feb. 11 shooting death of a Youngstown teen refused a plea offer Tuesday in the courtroom of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Cynthia Westcott, but changed his mind and entered a plea on Wednesday.

Willis L. Smith IV, 18, originally refused an offer from the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office to plead guilty to an amended indictment of involuntary manslaughter with a three-year firearm specification and tampering with evidence. His jury trial that was set for July 27 was canceled after he pleaded guilty to those charges Wednesday.

The judge immediately sentenced Smith to indefinite, consecutive prison terms totaling 17 to 22.5 years. He was represented by defense attorney Brendan Keating, who helped secure the plea deal.

Smith was indicted Feb. 19 on charges of aggravated murder with a three-year firearm specification and tampering with evidence. He and his co-defendant, Ashaud Johnson, 19, were charged in the shooting death of Da’Mar McKinney, 16, of Youngstown, at the Packard Park Apartments on Mahoning Avenue NW in Warren.

Johnson was sentenced in June to 31 years to life in prison after he was found guilty by a Trumbull County jury after a trial before Judge Sarah T. Kovoor. He was charged with aggravated murder with a firearm specification and two counts of tampering with evidence.

McKinney was found outside the apartment complex with a gunshot wound and died the next day. It was Warren’s second homicide of the year.

Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker said the evidence presented at the trial would have shown that Smith fired one shot that night, but it was not the fatal shot. Security video from the apartment complex would identify Smith as firing the shot, and Becker said other evidence would show that he and Johnson hid the firearms after the shooting, which resulted in the tampering with evidence charges.