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Champion man gets at least 50 years for killing man near Hot Dog Shoppe in Warren

By Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office

December 13, 2023 3:23 PM

A Champion man who was facing death penalty level charges has agreed to a plea bargain that saw his death penalty specifications go away, but the guilty pleas to a drive-by fatal shooting July 21, 2022, in downtown Warren will have him serving a life sentence with the first chance for parole coming after 50 to 55 ½ years in prison.

Domenic Harvey, 22, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, and receiving stolen property.

Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Cynthia Rice then sentenced Harvey to consecutive sentences which included eight years in mandatory gun specifications, one for using a firearm in the crime and the other for shooting a firearm out of a moving vehicle.

How did the crime happen?

Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker said Harvey used a stolen AR 15 at the corner of West Market Street and Tod Avenue near the Hot Dog Shoppe at the dinner hour to fatally shoot 23-year-old Jauton Lee Jr. and wounding 24-year-old Mitchell Powell, two Warren men who were riding in another vehicle.

In delivering an emotional victim impact statement to the court, Lee’s mother Tiana Jackson, said she is grateful that her son’s executioner has been taken off the streets.

“You are now just a number ... your name will not be remembered for this cowardly act,” Jackson told the defendant as he sat in the court’s jury box.

Also in the courtroom was Lee’s 3-year-old daughter, J’rean.

Convict will be classified as a violent offender

Judge Rice said Harvey will now be classified as a violent offender, meaning if he is ever released from prison, he must give his address annually to the sheriff’s office.

Harvey’s attorney, Morgan Caruso, said her client, who didn’t previously have a criminal record, accepts full responsibility for the violent acts.

Becker credited the investigative work of the Warren Police Department for solving the crime and bringing Harvey into custody.

After the judge pronounced sentence, the large crowd of Lee’s friends and relatives in the courtroom, clapped. However, Lee’s mother said she doesn’t feel that justice was done.

“Nothing is the same, it has been a long hurtful journey,” said the woman who celebrates a birthday on Christmas Day. “That day will never be the same again.”