Staff file photo / Ed Runyan.... Brandon Crump Jr., right, appears at a hearing last year with his attorney, Lou DeFabio, in Mahoning Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — The case against Brandon Crump Jr. in the killing of 4-year-old Rowan Sweeney of Struthers has been bound over to adult court again.

Most of the charges Crump faced earlier in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the 2020 killing of Rowan were bound over to common pleas court a second time Wednesday after a short hearing in Mahoning County Juvenile Court.

Judge Theresa Dellick bound over charges of aggravated murder and murder of Rowan, and attempted murder in the shootings of four adults and other charges in the Sept. 21, 2020, killing of the boy in a home on Perry Street in Struthers.

This bindover occurred after Crump waived his right Wednesday to have a hearing on the matter.

Crump, 20, was in court with his two attorneys and his guardian ad litem for the hearing, as was Rowan’s father David Sweeney, stepmother Bailey Williamson and two assistant prosecutors.

The case now goes back to a Mahoning County grand jury to decide whether to indict Crump on some or all of the charges.

THE HEARING

Wednesday’s hearing was called a probable cause hearing.

Crump had a right to force prosecutors to prove probable cause that the offenses took place and that Crump committed them. But because Crump waived the hearing, no witnesses were presented.

Anisa Modarelli, assistant county prosecutor, said one of the 15 charges faced before the hearing — one type of aggravated murder charge called “with prior calculation and design” — was dismissed in exchange for waiving the hearing.

But several other types of aggravated murder charges are being presented to the grand jury.

If convicted of any of those charges, Crump could get life in prison, but not the death penalty. Officials have said Crump cannot receive the death penalty because he was a juvenile at the time of the killing.

PRIOR ACTION

Dellick had bound the case over to a grand jury once earlier, but prosecutors agreed with defense attorney Lou DeFabio the case should return to juvenile court for a probable cause hearing on certain additional charges.

For months, the progress of the case has been stymied by Crump’s case returning temporarily to juvenile court and the January arrest of co-defendant Andre McCoy Jr., 22, which resulted in additional evidence being collected and having to be evaluated by the state crime lab.

Prosecutors have said they wanted to try Crump first among the three defendants in the case; the third being Kimonie Bryant, 26.

Police have said Rowan’s mother told them that before she was shot, she tried to lie on top of the boy to protect him, but he was shot anyway. Police have said the murder and shootings happened during what they believe started out as a robbery.

Also Wednesday the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley announced it is providing to the Rowan Sweeney Memorial Foundation $5,000 for the “Rowan Sweeney Memorial Playground” at Boardman Township Park.

erunyan@vindy.com