Suspect in ’23 Kent killing to act as his own attorney
Cheretta Frierson was pregnant at the time of her death, said police.
An Arizona man will go on trial this week on charges he shot a pregnant woman last November in Kent.
The trial of Dawan Rahman Wilson, 45, was scheduled to begin with jury selection Tuesday in Portage County Common Pleas Court, with opening statements expected Thursday. The court is closed Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.
Wilson is acting as his own attorney in the trial before Judge Laurie J. Pittman.
Kent police say officers responded to a home in South Water Street’s 1300 block after a neighbor called 911 to report hearing screaming and what sounded like several gunshots coming from a home on Nov. 21. Police said they found 35-year-old Cheretta Frierson dead at the bottom of the basement stairs.
Frierson was pregnant at the time of her death, said police.
Police said Frierson lived in Arizona prior to staying at the home with a family member. A young girl and an infant boy were the only other occupants at the home at the time of the shooting. Neither was injured.
Wilson was arrested in Texas on a warrant and extradited back to Ohio.
The suspect has been held without bond in Portage County Jail, with a no-contact order for Frierson’s family.
Police say Akron resident Michael Deshawn Lollar, 38, drove Wilson to and from the home. He was arrested in January in Akron. Lollar remains in the county jail on a $2 million bond and is scheduled for an Aug. 20 jury trial, also before Pittman.
Wilson is charged in a grand jury indictment with four counts of aggravated murder and a single count of first-degree felony aggravated burglary.
A grand jury indicted Lollar on four counts of complicity to aggravated murder and one count of first-degree felony complicity to aggravated burglary.
Two of the aggravated murder and complicity charges against Wilson and Lollar stem from Frierson’s death. The others are tied to “unlawful termination” of her pregnancy.
All five counts against Wilson and Lollar carry a firearm specification.