2019 | State v. Lavontae Ezhell Knight

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin in July supported a motion to disqualify former assistant Mahoning County prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa from the murder case against Lavontae Knight.

Knight, 25, stands accused of fatally shooting 25-year-old Joshua Donatelli in October 2018 during an alleged drug deal, according to court records.

A grand jury first indicted the other suspect in Donatelli's murder, George Gutierres, in February 2019 on counts of involuntary manslaughter, attempted possession of cocaine and possessing criminal tools.

Months later, Gutierres began negotiating a plea deal, and told prosecutors that Knight was the shooter. But the court determined prosecutors were late in giving Gutierres' statement to Knight's attorney, David Betras of Canfield — a break of evidentiary disclosure rules.

Knight was indicted in April 2019 on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of murder and one count of aggravated robbery with a firearm, among other drug and weapon charges.

During proceedings on whether to try Knight and Gutierres separately, Cantalamessa argued that Gutierres had only denied that he shot Donatelli, and never implicated Knight.

"He never says it's Lavontae Knight," she told the court.

If that were the case, then it wouldn't be prejudicial against Knight to have him tried alongside his codefendant Gutierres, prosecutors argued.

Though Gutierres didn't implicate Knight when initially speaking to Youngstown police, he did later, when entering into plea negotiations with prosecutors. Prosecutors argued Gutierres' statement, however, wouldn't have been admissible in court because he had not yet accepted that plea deal.

"Candidly, this court finds that position untenable," Judge Durkin wrote in a July 19 judgment entry, ruling prosecutors had an obligation to turn that statement over and that its admissibility was a separate matter.

"Cantalamessa's statement that 'he never says it's Lavontae Knight' was a false statement of fact," he wrote.

Before receiving Gutierres' statement, Betras in December 2019 argued the only thing linking Knight to the crime was a statement an eyewitness to Donatelli's murder made to prosecutors. The woman claimed she saw Knight on TV — during a news report on another homicide — and identified him as Donatelli's shooter.

But almost a year prior, the eyewitness had failed to pick Knight out of a photo lineup of potential suspects. Prosecutors never passed that detail on to the defense, either. Though Betras had "continuously requested" additional evidence from the state about the eyewitness, Cantalamessa said there wasn't any to turn over.

It wasn't until this past May, less than a week before Knight's trial was set to begin, that prosecutors shared the photo lineup evidence with Betras, according to Judge Durkin's July filing.

Though Cantalamessa claimed she was previously unaware that there was evidence of the results of the photo lineup, a Youngstown police detective testified he personally delivered the evidence to the prosecutor's office in January 2019.

"Although the outcome of this trial is not yet known, Cantalamessa's conduct has impacted these proceedings," Judge Durkin ruled in July. "She made a false statement of material fact to this court. She failed to timely provide the codefendant's proffer to defendant Knight. She failed to periodically and regularly review her case file.

"This failure, especially given the defendant's repeated requests for additional evidence concerning the eyewitness, can best be characterized as a careless indifference to ascertaining the truth," the judge continued. "To leave this conduct unchecked would undermine the integrity of our system of justice. Achieving fair outcomes is perhaps the single most important function of criminal proceedings, and the key ingredients of a fair process should extend to the innocent and the guilty alike."

Cantalamessa declined to comment on the Knight case, as it's still pending.

Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin has since filed to try the case, records show.

Knight's jury trial has been set for March. He's still in the Mahoning County Jail on a total $1 million bond.

Gutierres pleaded guilty in December 2019 to a single felony count of attempted possession of cocaine. Prosecutors dismissed his other charges including aggravated murder and aggravated robbery.

He's still awaiting a sentencing hearing, which has also been set for March. He remains in the county jail without bond.

This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "2019 | State v. Lavontae Ezhell Knight."