A jury found a man not guilty after nearly a week of testimony and a mistrial in the case of a 15-year-old girl who was murdered in Youngstown.

On Thursday afternoon, the jury found Danyo Sellers not guilty on all counts, which included felonious assault, involuntary manslaughter and improperly handling a firearm.

On Thursday morning, the prosecution and defense both laid out their arguments in the case of Sellers, who was said to be the triggerman in a drive-by shooting at a sweet 16 birthday party in April of 2023 that claimed the life of 15-year-old Amya Monserrat.

The prosecution started its closing argument by bringing up the last words said at the party before shots rang out: "There goes that car again."

The car in question was allegedly driven by co-defendant Saun Peterson, who pleaded guilty to four counts against him in exchange for the dismissal of a murder charge.

That plea deal was rescinded after Peterson refused to testify against Sellers, resulting in a mistrial and a new trial starting over from the beginning.

The prosecution argued that the testimony given throughout the trial was enough to prove that Sellers is guilty, stating that Sellers allegedly hanging out of the car was enough to prove that he knowingly caused or attempted to cause physical harm to someone.

"When you fire a gun, you're responsible for what comes out of that gun, and that's what we've seen here. When you're reaching over the roof and repeatedly firing an automatic weapon, you're causing or attempting to cause harm to another person with that weapon," the prosecution said.

The prosecution went on to address a question asked by the defense during opening statements: "If Danyo Sellers was removed from this situation, would anything change?" 

The prosecution argued that the situation would have changed and that Monserrat could still be alive if Sellers had been removed from the equation.

"If the gunfire comes from the parking lot first, it's not because it's an ambush, it's because, 'There goes that car again.' And this time at least, somebody's hanging out and pointing a gun over the roof. And that somebody is not a mystery," the prosecution said.

Meanwhile, the defense argued that, regardless of whether Sellers was present, the car would still have shown up at the party, because Peterson drove to pick up his sister from the party.

The defense then attacked the prosecution's argument regarding Sellers hanging out of the car by showing the video of when shots rang out at the party.

"That car had already been shot at. Saun still had to go pick up his sister. The car reapproaches the tavern, the parking lot fires at the car and the car returns fire. You didn't hear [the defense] dispute that. Shots happened in the parking lot first. That's important," the defense said.

The defense also argued that the shots fired from the car did not cause Monserrat's death because the shell casings were found nearly two blocks away from the scene of the murder.

 

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