11th District Court upholds conviction of Liberty Township man
The 11th District Court of Appeals upheld the opinion of a Trumbull County Common Pleas judge who denied the petition for post-conviction relief from a Liberty Township man convicted in a 2021 trial.
Appellate Judge Eugene A. Lucci, joined by fellow judges Matt Lynch and Robert J. Patton, upheld the conviction and prison sentence of Daryl L. Casey Jr.
Why was Daryl L. Casey Jr. convicted?
Casey, 29, was sentenced to a seven to nine year prison term, including a three-year gun specification, after a Trumbull County jury convicted him in the spring of 2021 of a charge of discharge of a firearm into a habitation.
The Liberty man was accused of shooting his neighbor Kavin Moore in the leg at a Hadley Avenue apartment complex in Liberty during the summer of 2020. However the jury deadlocked on the felonious assault charge.
On Nov. 7, 2022, Casey’s attorney field a petition for post-conviction relief in Rice’s court. The judge dismissed the petition, which alleged ineffective assistance of counsel, without a hearing, saying the charges were meritless and unsubstantiated. Casey’s attorney Rhys B. Cartwright-Jones argued in appeal that the trial counsel was ineffective because it failed to offer evidence of Casey’s purported diagnosis of PTSD in mitigation.
Why was the appeal denied?
In his decision, Lucci writes that the three appellate judges find no error in the trial court’s decision, stating “appellant’s petition does not include any evidence, let alone medical or psychological proof dehorrs the record of an independent PTSD diagnosis.”
Also Casey’s attorney brought up that the apartment in which Casey’s shots went into may not have been occupied, thus trial counsel was ineffective in not arguing that point at trial. The appellate judges, however, could not find basis for such an argument.
Casey will remain incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution, with an expected release date of March 2028.
Representing the state in the appeal was Assistant Prosecutor Ryan J. Sanders.
CONNECT WITH US
WEB SITE ► https://www.mahoningmatters.com
DAILY NEWS EMAIL ► https://www.mahoningmatters.com/customer-service/newsletter-signup/
FACEBOOK ► https://www.facebook.com/mahoningmatters
TWITTER ► https://twitter.com/mahoningmatters
YOUTUBE ► https://www.youtube.com/@mahoningmatters2814
INSTAGRAM ► https://www.instagram.com/mahoningmatters
SUPPORT US ► https://givebutter.com/vNfzEW