The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Trial rescheduled in murder case
Abline Cannon, 39, was scheduled to begin his jury trial in connection to the Dec. 10, 2016.
Attorneys for a Cleveland man accused of murder will have another week to prepare their case after a hearing Aug. 13.
Abline Cannon, 39, was scheduled to begin his jury trial in connection to the Dec. 10, 2016, death of 23-year-old David Barriero of Lorain in an apparently botched drug deal, but a hearing on motions before a jury was seated led to a week continuance.
The cause of the delay was the introduction of a new witness who did not come to the prosecution’s attention until the Friday before the trial was scheduled to begin.
Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Tony Cillo told Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge D. Chris Cook that Cannon had confessed to his part in the crime to the witness and the witness was willing to testify to these statements.
Cillo said once he’d spoken to the witness, he shared all of the information with the defense in compliance with court rules involving discovery.
“This isn’t something where evidence was lost and found; this came to you out of the blue Friday morning?” Cook asked Cillo.
Cillo replied he received word of the possibility that the man was willing to share the evidence Aug. 8, but wasn’t able to meet with him until Aug. 10.
Attorney James Burge, one of Cannon’s defense lawyers, said he had the chance to quickly look at the information Cillo had sent.
“Enough to know the damage that it was doing if the state of Ohio was willing to use (the witness) either in its case in chief, or a rebuttal,” Burge said. “I would request a continuance.”
After about 20 minutes of the attorneys and Cook
“This isn’t something where evidence was lost and found; this came to you out of the blue Friday morning?”
— Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge D. Chris Cook
discussing the merits of bringing the witness into the trial, he continued the trial to Aug. 20.
This was not the only motion discussed in the hearing that will have a substantial impact on the trial though.
Cillo told the court he would not use some recorded jailhouse phone calls unless it became necessary to impeach Cannon’s own testimony in the case after Burge indicated his client intended to take the stand and claim he was not involved in Barriero’s death.
Cillo went on to ask the court to stipulate that Cannon would not be able to claim while testifying that the prosecution was unwilling to work with him.
He said it was evident from the jailhouse calls that Cannon was angry with the prosecution because they did not accept a “compromise.”
“He wanted five years (of incarceration) to provide who else was involved in the rest of it, and we declined it,” Cillo said. “I don’t think it’s proper to put those things in front of a jury since they were an offer of compromise.”
Also, Cook granted the prosecution’s motion to remove a picture of Burge from outside of the courtroom so that it wouldn’t unduly influence the jury as they enter. Burge, a former common pleas judge, is pictured alongside other former county judges in the courthouse.