Prosecution rests in trial of Henry Spooner for fatal 2022 Elyria shooting

ELYRIA — The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office rested its case Friday against accused killer Henry Spooner after spending three days making its case that he executed Jordan Flanigan with a single gunshot to the head at a Middle Avenue apartment complex in October 2022. Spooner, 23, has pleaded not guilty in Common Pleas Court to murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle charges in the death of Flanigan, 24. He is being held in the Lorain County Jail, where he has been in custody since February 2023. Thirteen jurors are hearing the case, with one to be chosen as an alternate. Judge Giovanna Bremke alone will determine whether Spooner, a convicted felon, is guilty of having weapons under a felony disability and if he should be classified a repeat violent offender. The defense will present its case starting Monday morning. Spooner may take the stand in his own defense, his attorneys said Friday. Those attorneys, R.J. Budway and Jason Harless, have argued Spooner acted in self-defense on Oct. 27, 2022, at Midview Crossing. Though Spooner says he was "ambushed" by Flanigan and a 15-year-old boy both armed with guns, evidence has shown shows Spooner shot first. One of his shots, fired from 2 feet away, hit Flanigan in the face and killed him instantly. A friend of Flanigan's, the 15-year-old then opened fire on Spooner, hitting him once in the abdomen and once in the jaw. Spooner got up and ran away as the 15-year-old's half brother, Antwon President Jr., grabbed the gun Flanigan dropped when he was shot and killed and chased Spooner on foot, firing wildly. All of the more-than a dozen shots fired that night were fired within a span of less than 30 seconds, Harless said Friday. Spooner made it to a hospital and was treated for his injuries. Police testified and multiple pieces of evidence clearly show Spooner lied to investigators when he said he didn't have a gun or shoot anyone, but rather was caught in the crossfire "wrong place, wrong time."Question by question, Harless worked to pick apart the Elyria Police Department investigation into the shooting. Interviewed later — and found to have acted in self-defense when he shot Spooner, according to the Prosecutor's Office — the 15-year-old provided detectives with information that matched what they saw on multiple security cameras at the apartment complex, Elyria police Detective James Homoki testified. The youth also was evasive "at times" in his answers, Homoki testified. Detectives also never found any direct threats by Spooner against Flanigan, before the two had their fatal confrontation, Homoki testified. Spooner, his brother and three other men with them that night also weren't acting hostile or violent in online videos police found after the shooting. They were laughing and joking and singing rap lyrics, Homoki testified. There also was no evidence that Flanigan saw those videos before he was shot and killed, Homoki testified. The best motive detectives could come up with for the shooting was a disagreement over a woman, the "baby mama" or mother of a child of one of the men involved, Homoki testified. Harless also asked Homoki, a police officer since 1998, what he would do if he were in Spooner's shoes and a man approached him like Flanigan approached Spooner that night, carrying a gun pointed down at his side. Homoki testified that would depend on the context. He said he frequently gets approached by people legally carrying firearms in the open as allowed under Ohio law. "I'd say (I'd pay) attention, yes. Am I shooting him? No," Homoki told Harless. It isn't known what was said between Flanigan and Spooner that night. No one has taken the stand to testify to that. Despite being caught on film firing the fatal shot, Spooner lied and told police he didn't know anything in his lone interview with detectives. "And we can't interview Mr. Flanigan," Homoki said on the stand. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.