2012 senior class photos
2012 West Carrollton graduation
Home of the Week
Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2009 > August > 17 > Entry
Murder trial opens for accused Higgins Station shooter
DAYTON — The trial of a paroled bank robber, accused of shooting six people at a Trotwood bar in December, killing one, started Monday, Aug. 17.
Rodney T. Young, 29, is charged with one count of murder, 12 counts of felonious assault, one count of illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor permit premises, and one count of carrying a concealed weapon. If convicted, Young faces a possibility of being imprisoned for life plus an additional 130 years.
Assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Sarah Schenck told the jury that Young fired toward the front of the Higgins Station bar on Dec. 12, and “the front of the bar is filled with people.”
The shooting at the bar, 420 E. Main St., killed David Watson, 21, of Dayton and injured five other people, Schenck said.
“David Watson was shot in the back as he tried to get away,” Schenck said.
Watson collapsed in the parking lot and was pronounced dead at an area hospital, Schenck said.
Defense attorney Bobby Joe Cox declined to give an opening statement Monday, reserving his right to give a statement later.
Prosecutors presented one witness Monday: bartender Lonista Taylor, who was working the night of the shootings.
Taylor said that she only saw the sleeve and the hand of the gunman. When Schenck asked her if she remembered identifying Young as the shooter during police photo lineups in December, or during an Aug. 7 meeting with prosecutors, she said she didn’t remember.
When Cox asked her if she was certain Young was the shooter, she asked if she had to answer yes or no. When Cox told her she did, Taylor replied “If I had to say yes or no, I would have to say no.”
But during re-direct examination by Schenck, Taylor said she did see the shooter’s face, but only the side.
Taylor also told Schenck that she was scared for herself and her children, because “a lot of people” have called her, sent her text messages, and visited her at home and at the bar.
“I feel so bad for that mother who lost her child,” Taylor said, crying. “I am all that my children have left.”
Young was released from a federal prison on supervised parole in September after serving time for a 1998 bank robbery conviction. Following the shooting, Young was a subject of a federal manhunt for violating his parole. He was arrested Dec. 19 when U.S. marshals and local authorities kicked down the door of a Fort Mitchell, Ky., motel room.
Permalink | |
