Warren teen sentenced to at last 42 years in prison to life in prison for aggravated murder, robbery
An 18-year-old Warren man was sentenced for the November 2022 shooting death of 37-year-old Brice Hilton in a southeast Warren neighborhood.
A Trumbull County jury on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, found Gavin Roberts guilty of one count of aggravated murder and another count of aggravated robbery, both of which carry firearms specifications.
He received an indefinite prison sentence of 42 to 47 1/2 years to life.
Roberts, of Kenilworth Avenue SE in Warren, was found not guilty of another count of murder, as well as not guilty for a count of aggravated burglary.
Roberts was convicted of killing Hilton of Farrell, Pa., on Nov. 19, 2022. Testimony at trial showed Hilton was shot four times at Colonial Street and South Feederle Drive SE in Warren.
Hilton died shortly afterward at Trumbull Regional Medical Center. Hilton had traveled to Warren in an attempt to buy a cellphone from two men.
Hilton was robbed of $220 by the gunman who was identified by witnesses as Roberts, testimony stated.
Sentencing teen offenders in Ohio
Because Roberts was 17 at the time of the crime, Roberts will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years because of 2021 Ohio legislation which restricts sentencing for teen offenders, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker.
The jury took about two hours to deliberate Roberts’ fate after hearing a day and a half of testimony.
Testimony was briefly interrupted Tuesday morning, Oct. 3 after the defendant was attacked by a spectator who jumped over the bar in Trumbull County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Cynthia W. Rice and punched Roberts about three times in the face.
The defendant was not seriously injured, and the judge rejected two motions for mistrial that were made by Roberts’ attorney Jeff Goodman.
A man from Farrell, Pa. who was a nephew of Hilton, was charged in the courtroom attack and given a three-day jail sentence and fined $200 for contempt of court.
During the sentencing hearing, the judge heard tearful and emotional statements from the victims, Hilton’s fiancée Blair Legg, who was with him at the time of the fatal shooting, and Hilton’s mother, LeSonia Moorer-Henry.
Legg, in reading from a prepared handwritten victims’ impact statement, asked the judge to give Roberts “the maximum sentence allowable by law.”
“I can speak in truth for justice so that (Brice’s ) family can have peace,” Legg said. She added that she and her unborn son could “easily have been murdered that night too… without cause.”
In commenting about the youth of Roberts, Legg stated “Age doesn’t dictate punishment, the severity of the crime does.”
Becker and assistant Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman argued for the state in the case. Becker praised the investigative work of the Warren Police Department in this case and the way Judge Rice conducted the trial.
He also praised the victim impact statement of Legg.
“In my 33 years… I haven’t heard a better statement,” Becker said.
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