JEFFERSON — An Ashtabula County grand jury indicted four suspects last Friday in the July 26 shooting death of an Ashtabula man.
Malikhi J. Coleman, Julius Devon Simmons, Rayburn L. Seawood Jr. and Tori L. Lister now will be scheduled to appear for their arraignments in Common Pleas Court for their involvement in the murder of Fredrick Ricardo Johnson, 25, in the 1600 block of Ohio Avenue in Ashtabula.
Coleman, 20, of Ashtabula, is charged with murder, a with firearm specifications; discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises with firearm specifications, a first-degree felony; improper handing of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, a fourth-degree felony, and felonious assault, a second-degree felony, according to the indictment.
He remains in jail on a $1 million bond, according to court records.
Simmons, 25, of Warren, is charged with murder, with firearm specifications in a drive-by shooting; and felonious assault, with firearm specifications, a second-degree felony; discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, with firearm specifications, a first-degree felony, and obstructing justice, a third-degree felony, according to the indictment.
Simmons remains in jail on a $300,000 bond, according to court records.
Seawood, 24, of Ashtabula, is charged with two counts of tampering with evidence, third-degree felonies, and discharging a firearm at or near a prohibited premises, a first-degree felony, according to the indictment.
Seawood is being held on a $500,000 bond, according to court records.
The grand jury also indicted Lister, 26, of Ashtabula, on one count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, for knowing a police investigation was in progress and altered, destroyed or hid evidence to impair the investigation, according to the indictment.
The charges against the three men and one woman stem from a shooting that occurred at about 8:30 p.m. July 26 in the Ashtabula Harbor.
The Ashtabula Police Department and Ashtabula County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene, where they discovered Johnson in the roadway with a gunshot wound to the head.
Officers also found a vehicle, a rifle and several shell casings, Ashtabula Police Chief Robert Stell said.
Shortly thereafter, Johnson died at Ashtabula County Medical Center, according to the coroner’s report.
Witnesses told police multiple individuals were firing shots at each other in the street and took off in their vehicles before police arrived, Stell said.
Police got a description from witnesses of the vehicles and a BOLO (be-on-the-lookout) was issued for northeast Ohio law enforcement officers.
Ashtabula County Sheriff’s deputies stopped a vehicle around 9:30 p.m. in Roaming Shores that matched the description of one of the vehicles, Stell said.
That’s where Coleman and Simmons were taken into custody without incident, Stell said.
On July 28, Mahoning County Safe Streets FBI Task Force arrested Seawood in Poland, south of Youngstown. They brought him to Ashtabula County, where he was jailed.
Lister was arrested on July 29 and appeared in Ashtabula Municipal Court. A personal bond was set at $5,000 with the stipulation that she must stay away from co-defendants.
She waived her preliminary hearing and the case was bound over to the grand jury.