A Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge has given himself until Monday afternoon to reach a verdict in the murder case against a man accused of helping another man target a woman he wanted to kill.
Judge Dean Mandros heard closing arguments Wednesday afternoon in the trial of Andre Jackson, 32, which he is hearing from the bench, after denying a defense motion for judicial acquittal.
In an argument he would similarly reprise in his summation, defense lawyer Kurt Bruderly had argued that prosecutors’ case against Mr. Jackson was so dependent on “stacked inferences” and assumptions that no reasonable jury could convict his client.
But Judge Mandros ruled that an interpretation of the evidence most favorable to the prosecution — the standard required for a judicial acquittal — supported continuing with any witnesses the defense might offer before giving the case to the trier of fact to determine if guilt beyond a reasonable doubt had been proven. In this case, the trier of fact is the judge himself.
The judge did grant a defense motion to strike from the record a Toledo police detective’s testimony about the plea-bargained conviction of Jaron Phillips, the man accused of the fatal shooting Oct. 6, 2022, for involuntary manslaughter and other charges.
Convictions of others arising from the same set of facts are not admissible as potentially prejudicial, Judge Mandros said, and “I understand my obligation” to reach a verdict “based only on admissible evidence.”
Mr. Jackson is charged with aggravated murder, murder, and other charges for which Phillips, 24, of the 1100 block of Gordon Street, had also been indicted before he pleaded guilty last month to the reduced counts.
Phillips also pleaded guilty to reduced charges relating to a shooting about 42 hours later outside a Whitmer High School football game in which three people were wounded. Judge Mandros last week handed down a negotiated 34-year prison term for Phillips’ two convictions.
Mr. Jackson is not accused in the Whitmer shooting. But detectives concluded he provided information to Phillips about the whereabouts of Carmanetta Wilson, the target of the earlier shooting, that helped Phillips identify the vehicle in which she got a ride home from work and open fire on it when it stopped at a red light on North Expressway Drive at Lagrange Street about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 6, 2022.
Jessica Worley, an assistant Lucas County prosecutor, argued in closing that Mr. Jackson was the only person who both knew Wilson’s whereabouts — she had started working at Argus Corp., where he also worked, the night before — and was in communication with Phillips the night of the shooting.
Wilson accepted an offer for a ride home from another co-worker, Johnathan Coleman, after their supervisor asked for volunteers to leave work early, and arrangements were made for her cousin Lamiah Braswell-Carter, who worked on a different crew at Argus, to share that ride as well.
Mr. Coleman, 26, was killed by the hail of gunfire directed at his SUV, while Ms. Braswell-Carter was gravely wounded and Wilson received a thigh wound for which she still carries the bullet.
Mr. Bruderly argued, however, that prosecutors had failed to prove that Phillips couldn’t have known about Wilson’s whereabouts by other means, such as by social media rather than telecommunication, or by personally observing Coleman’s vehicle leave Argus with her in it.
Mr. Bruderly said there also was no proof Mr. Jackson knew who Wilson was or why she might be a target of violence. And even if he did identify her and tell Phillips when and how she was leaving Argus, there was no proof he knew what Phillips planned to do with that information.
At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutors said they had offered Mr. Jackson a 12-year prison term if he would plead to reduced charges, but Mr. Jackson told the judge he was not interested.
If convicted, Mr. Jackson faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. And even if parole eligibility is granted, multiple gun and motor-vehicle specifications attached to his various charges — which by law must be served first — would put Mr. Jackson in prison for 12 years or more before the life term even began, Judge Mandros had noted.
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