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Man guilty as accomplice in Main Mart murder

Attackers sought revenge after alleged robbery.

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By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer 9:00 PM Friday, February 10, 2012

Antonio Wynn, charged with complicity to commit murder in connection with a slaying committed by a childhood friend, was convicted Friday.

Both prosecutors and Wynn’s defense attorney said that Wynn punched Deonta Beans seconds before his death. They disagree as to whether Wynn was acting in concert with George E. Turner, who shot Beans after Wynn hit him.

“These two defendants, Antonio Wynn and George Turner, acted together in this crime,” said assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Jennifer Brumby during her closing argument Friday afternoon.

But Anthony Cicero said, while his client did assault Deonta Beans, he did not know that Turner was going to shoot him.

“This was an unexpected event,” Cicero said.

Beans, 20, was beaten and shot Dec. 3, 2010 in the Main Mart convenience store, which is on the 2400 block of North Main Street, near Parkwood Avenue. He died hours later at Miami Valley Hospital.

Surveillance video showed that Wynn and Turner walked into the store and Wynn punched Beans twice before Turner shot him.

The trial started Monday. Turner, 20, was to go on trial this week with Wynn, but he pleaded guilty to murder and tampering with evidence last week. No charges were dismissed, and his sentencing was set for Feb. 14.

Subpoenaed as a witness, Turner testified for the defense, and said that Beans robbed him at gunpoint with two accomplices weeks before Beans’ slaying.

“He thought he was going to be executed,” Cicero said. “That’s what Deonta Beans did to George Turner.”

Turner also testified that the two split up a pair of gloves before they entered the store. Wynn, who is right-handed, put on the right glove. Turner, who is left handed, put on the left.

Cicero told the jury not to focus on “isolated still issues,” from the video.

“Antonio Wynn did not aid or abet the felonious assault, the shooting of Deonta Beans,” Cicero said. “He was there to beat up Deonta Beans. That is not what he is on trial for.”

Assistant county prosecutor David Franceschelli said that the defense was wrong to characterize the shooting as an unexpected event, as two childhood friends, one armed, went to exact revenge for the prior robbery. The shooting was a foreseeable outcome of that, he said.

“That’s classic aiding and abetting,” Franceschelli said. “He doesn’t get a freebee.”

Wynn was arrested that same evening at his home on the 2600 block of Main, wearing the same clothes as the attacker, Brumby said.

Members of the Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team, or SOFAST, arrested Turner at a West Cornell Woods Drive apartment Jan. 21, 2011.

Beans’ older brother Jeffrey, 26, was killed Jan. 9, 2011, and his body dumped in an alley near the Paul Laurence Dunbar House. Police said they had found no evidence to connect the brothers’ slayings.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Frances E. McGee gave the case to the jury at about 12:10 p.m. They reached a verdict at about 3:30 p.m., and McGee set sentencing for Feb. 28.

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