Staff photo / Ed Runyan ABOVE: Marquez D. Thomas, 26, leaves the courtroom Monday after being sentenced to 18 to 23.5 years in prison for the Dec. 30, 2021, shooting death of Joseph Addison, 42, at apartments on Tyrell Street on the West Side of Youngstown. At right is one of his attorneys, Lynn Maro.

YOUNGSTOWN — Though the defense attorneys for Marquez Thomas, 26, and his sister, C’Mone Thomas, 24, both described the apartments on Tyrell Street on the West Side as “a war zone,” prosecutors disagreed.

Both Thomases pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification and two counts of felonious assault Monday, with Marquez Thomas being sentenced to 18 to 23.5 years in prison and C’Mone Thomas sentenced to 15 to 20 years. They were convicted in the shooting death of Joseph Addison, 42, and the shootings of two other people Dec. 30, 2021, at the apartment complex.

The Thomases were scheduled for a trial Monday before Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on aggravated murder and other offenses, but they entered pleas instead.

Before the sentence was handed down, attorney Lynn Maro, who represents Marquez Thomas, said the body and surveillance videos in the case depict the apartment complex where the shootings took place as a “war zone.”

“One of the first things said to the police by another resident at the Valley View apartments when there was a car that was totally shot up, all of the windows out, was ‘Don’t pay attention to that. That’s from a couple days ago,'” Maro said.

“We know from the 911 calls there were multiple instances of gunshots not just this day but in the days leading up to this,” she said. “The body cams show Ms. Thomas’ apartment (in the Tyrell apartments) totally riddled with bullets. And the videos do show Mr. Thomas coming out the front door and shooting across the parking lot. This was not an intended act. This was an intent to fire warning shots back after days of being barraged at his sister’s apartment with gunfire.”

Attorney Tony Meranto, who represents C’Mone Thomas, agreed with Maro that the 911 calls have “described that area” where the shootings took place “as kind of a war zone. Problems daily, not just on this evening.”

Before the sentencing, Rob Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, told the judge the defense and prosecution disagree as to whether Marquez Thomas fired any “warning shots,” saying there was “a total of 19 shots fired after Mr. Thomas paced around the parking lot waiting for Mr. Addison,” who was shot once in the back.

The three other people who were hit by gunfire were also in the apartment with Addison, Andrews said. “This was all the way across the parking lot,” he added.

He said Youngstown police put together a “good investigation, a lot of video footage, cell phone records, but I feel this is a fair resolution, certainly this was by no means a sure win for the State of Ohio. That’s why we think this is a fair resolution.”

Addison’s sister, Patricia Braxton-Western, gave a victim impact statement to the judge before sentencing, saying she wished the case had gone to trial because the “system has failed today for them (the Thomases) as well as my family, (but) God never does.”

She said Addison “was my everything. He was my family’s everything.” She added that she felt C’Mone Thomas “showed zero respect … through this whole process, laughing. There is nothing funny about any of this.”

Maro said Marquez Thomas had no juvenile or felony record prior to this shooting and was working at the time of these offenses. He was not at home initially. “He received a phone call and he came to help his sister.”

Marquez Thomas then spoke, giving “our long overdue condolences to the Addison family. This was never supposed to happen.” His sister did not offer any comments. Meranto said C’Mone Thomas had no felony record.

Meranto said “The whole crux of this case is whether or not (C’Mone Thomas) did in fact provide the weapon that Mr. Thomas fired in this case.”

After the hearing, Andrews said there is a reason that he did not use the term “war zone.” Pat Kiraly, another assistant prosecutor, added that it was clear from surveillance video that there was “only one person shooting” Dec. 30, 2021, and that gunfire came from Marquez Thomas. “Shell casings were only found where (the Thomases) lived, nowhere near the victim,” Kiraly said.

Kiraly said C’Mone Thomas’ apartment had a bullet hole through a window at the time of the Dec. 30, 2021, shootings. But that happened at least a couple of days earlier. No shots were fired toward her apartment Dec. 30, 2021, he said.

Prosecutors said they do not know whether the Marquez Thomas’ gunfire was retaliation for an earlier incident. It was never established what the motive was for the fatal gunfire, Andrews said.

After the hearing, Rob Andrews, county assistant prosecutor, said the episode involved 19 gunshots being fired inside the apartment complex, and the prosecution believes they were all fired by Marquez Thomas.

Andrews said there were reports of three other people being hit by gunfire from the gun Marquez Thomas fired in addition to Addison, but one of the three did not cooperate with investigators, so the third count of felonious assault was dismissed.

Marquez gets credit for about two years in the county jail awaiting trial. C’Mone Thomas gets credit for about four months less than that.