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Indictments handed down by Jefferson County grand jury

STEUBENVILLE — A Toronto man who hosted a drinking party that led to a party guest’s shooting death two months ago was indicted for tampering with evidence, one of seven new indictments returned Wednesday by a Jefferson County grand jury.

Jurors also issued superseding indictments in cases involving four men who’d previously been indicted. One “not true” bill was returned.

Party host Matthew Lumpkin Jr., 19, 519 West Fernwood Drive, Toronto, was ordered to stand trial for allegedly trying to hide evidence Aug. 21 in Toronto.

The felony indictment alleges Lumpkin tried to hide a gun after the shooting death of a 19-year-old Steubenville resident while party guests were playing a version of Russian roulette with a loaded revolver while the participants were drinking, authorities said.

Prosecutors maintain Lumpkin was not involved in the actual shooting but did try to get rid of the gun, and said “upwards of 20 minutes” passed before anyone called 911.

The shooter has been charged in juvenile court with reckless homicide.

Also indicted was Jonathan Terrell Bray, 636 Grandview Ave., Steubenville, having weapons while under disability, improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors allege Bray, 32, tried to discard a weapon during a traffic stop after a March 17 shots-fired call in downtown Steubenville, but officers were able to locate the gun and said it had Bray’s DNA on it. Bray is prohibited from having guns because of a prior felony conviction in Jefferson County for drug trafficking, authorities say.

City police had said Bray was a passenger in a car that matched the description of one of two vehicles seen fleeing the scene after shots were fired on Seventh at South streets March 17. They reported finding a bag containing 2.64 grams of cocaine on the floorboards where he’d been sitting behind the driver and claimed he became “very confrontational, stating we could not arrest him because the suspected cocaine was not on his person.”

Police also said they found a black 9mm high capacity magazine “loaded with an unknown amount of live rounds” under the center console in the back seat, and when they didn’t find the gun it went to decided to walk the route the SUV he was in had followed, recovering a Glock 9 mm in the 400 block of Alton Avenue.

Bray was not charged in connection with the shots fired.

Others indicted include:

— Clarence Tyler Shannon, 145 Devore St., Cadiz, misdemeanor assault on Aug. 31.

Shannon, 41, allegedly waited outside an Adena bar for an 80-year-old man his girlfriend had told him was being rude to her, and when the senior came outside, ran up to him, “screaming and spitting in (his) face”, then “picked (him) up in the air and ‘body-slammed’ him. The older man’s hip was broken.

The indictment charges Shannon “knowingly caused or attempted to cause” physical harm to the older man.

— Vanessa Rae Johnson, 29, 515 Pittsburgh St., Steubenville, burglary and two counts felonious assault Sept. 20 in Steubenville.

The indictment charges Johnson with using a “deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance,” a glass bowl, to beat the woman who owned a house she entered “with purpose to commit…a criminal offense.”

Authorities allege Johnson didn’t know the woman and fled only when the victim’s teenaged daughter came downstairs and saw her.

— Tina Louise Smith, 47, 933 Lisbond St., East Liverpool, two counts complicity to aggravated trafficking of methamphetamine, three counts aggravated possession of drugs, all felonies, and a misdemeanor charge of endangering children, Sept. 23 in Toronto.

Authorities allege Smith was complicit “in helping two different men do drug deals,” one of them while her child was in the car.

The indictment charges Smith transported both men to methamphetamine buys, using her phone to set up the buys and sharing in the proceeds, and with obtaining, possessing or using heroin, methamphetamine and crack cocaine herself that same day.

— James Michael Johnson, Port Washington, OH, escape, a felony.

The indictment charges Johnson, 33, escaped from Eastern Ohio Correction Center on March 4.

— Brittany M. Alvis, 32, 307 Lockhart, Mingo Junction, misdemeanor child endangerment.

Alvis allegedly “created a substantial risk to the health or safety” to eight children in her care on Aug. 7.

Amended and superseding indictments were returned in the cases of:

— Corey T’Bren Rice, 1175 County Road 28, Townhouse No. 3, Wintersville, possession of cocaine, aggravated possession of drugs, possession of fentanyl-related compound, all felonies, and misdemeanor endangering children Nov. 4 in Wintersville.

Rice, 34, was originally indicted in October on a felony charge of possession of heroin, and misdemeanor possession of cocaine and child endangerment, but tests later determined one of the substances was a fentanyl-related compound but not heroin. An aggravated drug possession charge also was added.

— Samuel G. Orbin, 32, Sarver, Pa., two counts of vandalism May 28 in Steubenville.

Orbin, originally indicted in September, allegedly pulled an exit sign off the wall and trashed a guestroom at Sleep Inn & Suites.

The superseding indictment removed language putting a dollar value to the damage he allegedly did.

— Aaron D. Hill, 1426 Pennsylvania Ave., Steubenville, two counts of trafficking drugs, June 29-30 in Steubenville.

Hill, 47, was originally indicted in October on a single count of trafficking a fentanyl-related compound to an informant on June 29. The superseding indictment tacked on an additional trafficking charge the following day.

— Brian Fazsuan Jones, 1416 Ridge Ave., Steubenville, having weapons while under disability, possessing a defaced firearm, tampering with evidence, burglary and a firearm specification, Aug. 15 in Steubenville.

Jones, 30, was originally indicted in October on charges of having a weapon under disability and having a gun with altered identification markings. The superseding indictment added a third count, tampering with evidence.

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