YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A Campbell man accused of a 2022 murder in Youngstown has asked a judge to take back his guilty pleas in an unrelated shooting and burglary case.
Attorneys for Stevie Ballard, 22, made the motion Monday before Judge Anthony Donofrio in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Thursday, Ballard pleaded guilty before Judge Donofrio to charges of felonious assault, being a felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated burglary relating to a shootout on Nov. 22. 2021, at an Austintown apartment complex.
The aggravated burglary charge is for an incident four days earlier at the same apartment complex.
In January, Ballard was indicted by a grand jury for the January 2022 shooting death of Darrell Jackson, 20, in Youngstown.
Jackson was found shot to death in his car near Market Street and East Philadelphia on January 22, 2022.
The trial in the fatal shooting case is set for August.
One of Ballard’s lawyers, Rhys Cartwright Jones, asked Judge Donofrio if he could have time to submit arguments for taking the guilty plea back in the 2021 burglary and shooting case, and Assistant Prosecutor Martin Hume said he had no objection.
Judge Donofrio said he thought Ballard was “hesitant and reluctant” when giving his pleas Thursday.
Ballard is charged with the Nov. 18, 2021, break-in at a Westminster Avenue apartment where a man was pistol whipped and suffered four broken ribs.
Four days later, Ballard is accused of getting into a shootout with a man at the same apartment complex. No one was injured.