Staff photo / Ed Runyan Defense attorney Nick Cerni is shown giving closing arguments in the Stevie Ballard felonious assault trial Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Behind him is a video monitor on which he played body camera videos of witnesses in the case.

YOUNGSTOWN — Jurors in the Stevie Ballard felonious assault trial went home Thursday night after deliberating for about an hour on Ballard’s guilt or innocence and will resume this morning in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Jurors heard the last prosecution witness Thursday, followed by closing arguments. Ballard’s defense team did not call any witnesses.

During closing arguments, the prosecution and defense focused much of their attention on multiple residents of Westminster Avenue in Austintown, where gunfire aimed at a car Nov. 22, 2021, resulted in felonious assault and other charges against Ballard, 23.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Hilles mentioned that Trayshaun M. Hill, 22, was found to be the driver of the vehicle that was hit with gunfire. He was found on North Four Mile Run Road about a third of a mile from where the vehicle was found abandoned.

“The police did find a gun where Tray Hill was found,” Hilles said. “We’re not going to hide that from you.”

Hill later pleaded guilty to having weapons while not allowed, tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property in the case and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The car involved was stolen.

Meanwhile, police were speaking to two women on Westminster Avenue just after the gunfire was reported to police. Police would eventually speak to a third woman, who also lived on Westminster Avenue.

The witness who stood out was Sharon Berry, who had taken her dog out that day and was only 10 to 15 yards from the car when the gunfire began.

Berry did not know Ballard personally, but “had seen (Ballard) almost every single day she lived there,” Hilles said.

Berry “testified she recognized (Ballard) immediately as he was walking down the street (toward the woman’s house) on the day of the incident. She knew his walk, what he looked like, his build, all different characteristics,” he said.

The shooter was wearing a mask, “but she (Berry) knew for certain it was the defendant she witnessed shooting the (car) that day,” he said.

Hilles mentioned another woman who lived on Westminster who told police Hill was driving the car and “knew who the shooter was. Stevie had shot at Tray right in front of her house at 66 Westminster Avenue,” Hilles said.

That woman was “terrified of Stevie Ballard,” but told police he was the shooter, he said.

Nick Cerni, one of Ballard’s attorneys, said police located Hill pretty quickly after they were called to the scene and were “floating around Stevie Ballard’s name, but they never found him anywhere in the city?” Cerni said.

Cerni said there was “never any evidence of traffic cams, Ring door cams. We saw those row houses, this apartment complex,” he said, adding “The State chose not to get any evidence there for you to corroborate this allegation.”

Then he played a body camera video for jurors that came from an Austintown police officer, the first officer to arrive. It was difficult to hear some of the comments, but when Berry starts talking to the police officer, she was “very excited to get involved,” Cerni said.

“She wants to be part of the process. She thinks she’s got this case correct because she’s been casing the joint, right? She knows a couple of people who are coming and going in that apartment complex and she doesn’t like it. She’s got her eye on it,” Cerni said.

“She’s starting to piece together things from her prior personal experience,” he said. When she first started to talk to officers, she did not right away indicate to them she knew who the shooter was, Cerni noted.

Cerni said there was a “discrepancy” in terms of what Berry said the night of the incident and when she testified Wednesday.

Berry said on the body camera regarding the shooter: “I think I know who it is,” Cerni said after playing her remarks. “What she is saying is ‘I didn’t see, but I think I know who it is because on a previous occasion I had formulated an opinion about this individual,'” Cerni said.

Berry could be heard on the recording saying, “The only reason I think it’s him (Ballard) is because I was sitting on the porch one day and I watched him come out with his girlfriend,” she said. Then Berry described seeing Ballard, whose name she did not know, putting a gun in the trunk of their car.

Ballard and his girlfriend lived in apartments across the street from her home.

“She didn’t say I saw him, I saw his face, I recognize his face. She said the only reason I think it’s him is because I think I previously seen him put a gun in his car,” Cerni said.

In his closing arguments later, Marty Hume, another assistant prosecutor, said Berry should be commended because she “paid attention to her neighborhood. She knew the people who came and went.” The woman not only paid attention when the gunshots were fired, she watched the shooter as he walked up Westminster prior to the shooting.

“She recognized Stevie Ballard who she knew from the neighborhood, so it wasn’t ‘Oh, she’s trying to solve a crime.’ She knew beforehand who it was. And then that of course is something she later shared with police.”

In addition to felonious assault, Ballard is charged with discharging firearms on or near prohibited premises, having weapons while not allowed and carrying a concealed weapon.