Parties close, Donte Parker II murder trial goes before the jury

ELYRIA — The defense and prosecution each took one last opportunity to pitch competing theories on the fatal shooting of Leonard McCall Jr. as they delivered their closing arguments to the jury on Tuesday. Donte Parker II, 25, of Elyria stands accused of the murder of McCall, 39, who was shot to death in the home of his stepbrother on West 14th Street in Lorain on Nov. 25, 2024. After both the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office and defense attorney Scott Smith, who is representing Parker, delivered their closing arguments the case was sent before the jury. Deliberations began Tuesday afternoon and are set to continue today. The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office argued one final time Tuesday that Parker entered the home and shot McCall to death during an armed robbery before making off with a PlayStation gaming console, which he ultimately sold for $180. Smith has attempted to cast doubt on the prosecution's version of events by not only questioning certain pieces of the prosecution's evidence, but by positing his own conflicting theory of who killed McCall. Since the trial began, Smith has suggested to the jury that another man, Cerrius Shelton, was the one who shot and killed McCall. Smith has argued that rather than a robbery, it is possible that the shooting of McCall sprang from a "botched drug deal," as he said that both men sold drugs and that they knew one another. McCall had just over 12 grams of illegal narcotics on him when he was shot, according to testimony during the trial. Smith said Lorain police, led by detective Sanders Sanchez, failed in their duty to properly investigate McCall's death by not looking into the possibility that he had been killed in a drug deal or by a competing drug dealer. Instead, Smith said, investigators decided that Parker was the killer based on rumors heard by McCall's mother and found evidence to match that theory. "We would argue that there was some evidence, but we would also argue that there were some holes in that evidence," Smith said. "And we would also argue that there was an unexplored alternate theory as to what possibly could have happened. Because, there is nothing that suggests Donte (Parker) was at that scene. There is no DNA evidence, there's no hair, there's no fibers, there's no fingerprints, so the state is left to try to construct — by using cellphone data — a theory that supports their view that Donte was the shooter." The Prosecutor's Office has displayed evidence that Parker's cellphone was in Lorain, in the area of the shooting, both before and after the murder occurred. Cell location data was also used as evidence of another important piece of the prosecution's claims: That Parker's girlfriend, Petra Pintar, and her friend Rachael Kirkendoll drove to Lorain to pick up Parker after the murder. Kirkendoll testified last week that she and Pintar picked Parker up in Lorain on the night of the murder and that shortly after they did so, she heard him tell his mother over the phone that he had killed someone. Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Matt Kern said that not only did cellphone location data corroborate Kirkendoll's testimony, but specific call records did as well. He pointed to the fact that just after 9 p.m. on the night of the murder, Jatonya Charlton, Parker's mother, called Parker's phone four times in quick succession, called Pintar and then did not call Parker again after the call to Pintar connected. Kern argued that this should be taken as strong evidence that Kirkendoll told the truth when she testified that she was with Parker and Pintar after the murder and that the call she heard between Parker and his mother did occur. He said that even though Kirkendoll originally got the name of the school where she picked up Parker wrong and originally told police he admitted to a robbery, rather than a murder, that testimony still matched up remarkably well with the other evidence. "If Rachael is lying — as Mr. Smith wants you to believe — If Rachael is lying, how is it that she was able to come up with a story back in February, back in early 2025, that fits with all of this evidence that police didn't have yet?" Kern asked. "She must just be really lucky, I guess. Or, is it possible that the information that she provided to police, and that she testified to in this trial, is accurate?" Kirkendoll did tell police different stories the first two times she was interviewed in 2025, before telling them about the call where Parker allegedly admitted to killing McCall at the end of the second interview. "Rachael Kirkendoll is a liar," Smith said. Smith argued that while the prosecution could place his client's phone in Lorain on the night of the murder, it could not place the phone at the actual scene of the crime or even prove that Parker was the one who was carrying the phone. Charlton testified on Tuesday morning that Parker had been using her phone that evening, and Smith has said that it was actually Shelton that had the phone on the night of the crime. "Could it be that Donte's phone is with Cerrius, and Donte is using his mom's phone?" Smith said. "It doesn't make sense that his mom denies going to Lorain and denies talking to Petra. So it is a possibility. I mean, it is not some magical doubt, it is not some implausible doubt, but, it is enough doubt that it could have happened that the defense would argue that it can't prove Donte's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Kern said that there was no evidence to suggest that Parker had passed his phone off to anyone, and that it was more likely that his mother lied to protect him. "It was a convenient claim to try and explain why it was that Donte wouldn't, like every other 20-something in America, have his phone on him at the time," he said. As for the claim that Shelton was the man who killed McCall, Kern said that based on surveillance footage which shows the suspected shooter and the testimonies of both McCall's stepbrother Marquay McCall and Sanchez, it was not possible. Kern said that Shelton, though Black, was too light-skinned to be the man that Marquay McCall described entering his home to rob him. He said that Shelton was also far too skinny - about 40 pounds lighter than Parker while about the same height — to have been the man either described by Marquay or seen fleeing the house on surveillance footage from a neighboring business. Possibly most importantly, Kern said, it was Parker who had sold the stolen PlayStation just eight days after the murder and provided no explanation for how it came into his possession. "So, in this case, you have the evidence, which points to Donte Parker II as the person who committed these offenses. And against that, you have a whole bunch of what-ifs," Kern said. "I suggest to you that you should be guided in this case by the evidence, and the evidence will lead you to but one conclusion; Donte Parker is guilty of these offenses." Parker is charged with 24 counts including 22 felonies,12 of which are different counts of murder. He is being held in the Lorain County Jail on $3.6 million bond stemming from multiple cases. Contact Owen MacMillan at 440-329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.