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Shooting trial to resume today

STEUBENVILLE – A fight in the Pleasant Heights neighborhood last spring that ended with one man shot and another man under arrest came under scrutiny Tuesday afternoon in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court during the felonious assault trial of Corey Lyons.

The trial was set to resume this afternoon.

According to Jefferson County Prosecutor Jane Hanlin, 30-year-old Brandon Young was standing on his sister’s porch at 1304 Park St. when he was shot three times.

Hanlin told the eight-woman, four-man jury the man who shot Young was identified by witnesses as Corey Lyons.

“The suspect was immediately identified as the shooter,” said Hanlin.

Hanlin told the jury Tuesday afternoon a fight had broken out on the evening of May 21, “that grew to include dozens of people.”

“The police were called to the scene twice to restore order before the shooting occurred. At approximately 2 a.m. the police department received telephone calls about multiple gun shots in the area. When the police responded to the scene they found chaos and a large amount of blood on the street in front of 1304 Park Street. Brandon Young had apparently made his way to his vehicle and drove to the Trinity West emergency room,” stated Hanlin.

“The police made their way to 1310 Park St. home that belonged to Corey Lyon’s grandmother. The police were pulled, shoved and pushed by people at that house but they were able to get through the crowd and placed the defendant in a cruiser,” continued Hanlin.

“The police searched the house at 1310 Park St. but were unable to locate a weapon in the house. The defendant had plenty of time to wash his hands and get rid of the weapon,” added Hanlin.

Lyons was indicted by a county grand jury in May on two counts of felonious assault and a single count of tampering with evidence as well as having a weapon as a convicted felon.

Lyons in 2008 was sentenced to slightly more than eight years in prison in U.S. District Court in Wheeling after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine.

Hanlin said Young spent several days in a Pittsburgh hospital recovering from the gunshot wounds.

“You do not have an easy job,” defense attorney Walter Madison told the jury.

“You will hear that both houses in this case were shot up. The lifestyle the people in this case live is not our business. This will be an evaluation of a person’s conduct … not who you are or where you live. You will need to evaluate what the witnesses are saying and their demeanor as they say it,” Madison advised the 12-member panel.

The jurors were immediately shown police video of the officers responding to the scene where people can be heard screaming Brandon Young had been shot and telling the police Corey Lyons had shot him.

A police department supervisor can also be heard telling people to, “get back, get back, you have to get back.” He also called for additional help and advised the police department to call for help from other police departments in the area.

The supervisor can be heard on the police audio tape telling another officer to put Lyons in a cruiser.

“We have to protect him from this crowd,” the unidentified officer can be heard saying.

“As I pulled up to the front of 1304 Park St. there was a lot of hysteria. The crowd was continuing to grow. I think we finally had officers from Wintersville, Toronto, the Jefferson County sheriff’s office, Ohio State Highway Patrol and Mingo Junction at the scene assisting us,” Sgt. Brian Bissett testified.

The jury selection lasted four hours Tuesday morning.

Testimony from police department officers lasted until approximately 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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