New sentencing dates set for two convicted of murdering Struthers 4-year-old

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D'Apolito has scheduled sentencing dates for two of the three men convicted of murdering 4-year-old Rowan Sweeney more than three-and-a-half years ago at a home in Struthers.

Sentencing hearings scheduled last week for Andrew McCoy and Brandon Crump have been reset.

The sentencing of 21-year-old Brandon Crump has been continued until June 26.  A jury found Crump guilty of murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, and conspiracy.

Twenty-four-year-old Andre McCoy, who pleaded guilty to murder, is now scheduled to take place on July 10.

McCoy's sentence would take place a week after a court hearing for 27-year-old Kimonie Bryant, whose April 17 sentencing for aggravated murder was canceled after a motion was filed alleging that he lied to prosecutors during his plea deal.

David Sweeney, Rowan’s father, posted a message about the delay on the Justice for Rowan Sweeney Facebook page about repeated delays in the case against those convicted of killing his son:

I am by no means frustrated with our prosecution at all. I may be frustrated by the laws that protect these criminals, but I know we have done everything that the law allows. Eventually, we will get #JusticeForRowanSweeney

We just really deserve some closure.

Investigators say on the night of the murder, Crump and Bryant planned to commit a robbery at a Perry Street home after learning that resident Yarnell Green Jr., had received a check for several thousand dollars in federal pandemic unemployment assistance funds.

Alexis Schneider and her 4-year-old son Rowan Sweeney, who was sitting on a couch, were both shot.

A woman sitting in the kitchen, Cassandra Marsicola, was shot three times during the robbery.

Yarnell Green was shot several times while trying to run away.  Green, who would have been a witness in the case, was later fatally shot in a separate incident in Youngstown.