There is a scheduled news conference at twelve thirty, so we're going to monitor
that and see if he has new information about what's happening in Israel. There's
profound a little bit of a disagreement disappointment in Israel that we have the troops
ready to go and we're holding this off because Joe Biden wants is to Plus,
there's the aid package available one hundred and seven billion dollars the President wants
to pass involving Ukraine, Israel, and many other causes. So that's down
the road. So stay tuned for the presidential news conference in about thirty minutes,
But until then, Melissa Powers is the Hamlet County prosecutor. Shell a
news conference recently about the matters involving the defendant Levonte Davis, and this was
an FCC couple that left a game and he was walking it over the rhine.
There was some verbal back and forth with the uber each driver. Unbeknownst
to anyone at this point, Levonte Davis was in the front seat, took
umbrage and away we go. Plus, we have the issue of jan Michelle
Kerney Lemon, who wants to use public assets to let those doing burnouts a
place to do it, but until then. Now Melissa Powers, welcome again
to the Bill Cunningham Show. And for those who have not seen the video,
and it was released to the media sometime yesterday, can you describe the
interactions between Jason McKinnon and Levan and Davis resulting in mister McKinnon's death. First
of all, thank you Billy for having me on your program today to talk
about the incident that occurred on October fourth, after the FC game. This
couple, Jason McKinnon and his wife were walking through over the rhyme to where
they had parked their car. And as they were proceeding, and it was
a populated street, I mean, there were a number of people that were
near or in the area, but he noticed a car facing the wrong way
on a one way and the driver that vehicle was a female and he and
her window was down, and he spoke to her politely saying, I'm not
sure, but I think you're going the wrong way on a on a one
way, and she began yelling at him, don't speak to me like that,
and then he yelled back. And then at some point the boyfriend of
the driver, Levonte Davis, walked up and sucker punched him in the face
to put him in a headlock type of choke hold. Took him down to
the ground and Jason was able to get released from that hold and stood up
again and was trying to keep somewhat of a distance, but then he was
attacked again. An off camera is where he's back into another choke hold.
You see him on the ground with Levonte Davis on top of the victim and
continuing to choke him. Several people walked up trying to it was yelling at
Davis to let him go, to stop, you know, he's tapping out,
don't catch a case, you know, and things along those lines,
and they kept yelling at him, yelling at Davis to release them, and
he never did. Jason McKinnon is then laying there, appears to be lifeless,
was unconscious. He was then taken to the hospital and then four days
later he succumbed to his injuries in the corner. After the autopsy, it
was compression to the neck is what caught was the cause of death. And
Melissa Power is one of the most disturbing things. This happened right in front
of Jason McKinnon's wife who's doing her best to yell and scream and get this
Davis character out. And you made a reference in your news conference although Davis
is only twenty four years old, which is of tender years almost. He
had multiple previous cases involving arm robberies and vicious assaults. I think three or
four, but all of them were dismissed. And I'm thinking that doesn't mean
necessarily it's a bad thing or a wrong thing. Maybe there's insufficient evidence.
But were the other cases dismissed because victims did not want to come forward to
identify Levante Davis as the perpetrator. You're correct, though, it was.
He had four violent offenses, two earlier this year, two in twenty twenty
one, aggravated robbery, assault of felony's assault, and aggravated menacing. The
misdemeanors were dismissed for want of prosecution, and typically what happens in those cases
is because they're dismissed because no one appeared. The victim failed to appear.
When the case was set for trial, the felonies were presented to the grand
jury and those were ignored. And again typically it's because the alleged victims do
not come and testify in order for the charges to be brought against him formally.
And so what normally happens in the grand jury. There might be thirty
or forty cases. I think Steve Talbert may be in charge. I'm not
sure, but still he's been there forever. And they line up the cases
and run him through. And if the matter of state versus Levannie Davis is
next up, and it's about a five to ten minute hearing, where are
the witnesses? Look around? Well, then you call for the witnesses.
Where are they? We got to have a promeifacient case of probable cause to
indict. And if there's no witnesses, Steve Tolbot will simply saying, well,
let's move on to the next case. And if witnesses don't show up,
then the case isn't indicted. Davis is not prosecuted. But the point
you're trying to make is this is not his first rodeo exactly. I mean,
they're showing he was there, he was arrested, there were complaints filed
against him for offenses of violence, so we know that there's some violent history
here. He just doesn't have the convictions at this point is different and the
family is devastated. If mister mckennnedy came out of an FCC game, he
was trying to be in a sense of good citizen by saying, hey,
you might be going the wrong way and unbeknownst to him speaking with a one
who I think was eight months pregnant relatable to Levannie Davis. He got out
and began with a punch and there was a moment after he punched Jason McKinnon
that they were and McKennon went down, that both parties got up and that
that was the moment that Davis had had to disengage. But it didn't happen,
did it. No, No, he went back for a second round
to really you know, and that that's the where the tragedy sets in,
and was able to get him in that choke hold again. And at this
point Jason McKinnon was fighting for his life, but he was pretty much rendered
helpless by the hold, and he was also Davis was on top of him,
so he had very limited ability to move to be able to try to
free himself from that choke hold because he was on the ground as well.
All right, So Davis is facing what charges has he been placed on him
this time? And hopefully I guess this time the witnesses will testify in a
sense, especially missus McKennon. But what charges is Davis facing. He was
indicted for two counts of murder, one count of felony's assault, and one
count of strangulation. So the felonius assault and strangulations are felling of the second
degree. If he's convicted on all charges, he faces the maximum possible sentence
of life in prison without the parole eligibility after fifteen years, or excuse me,
with parole eligibility after fifteen years. Tony Bender wants to know how come
there's one body and there's two murder cases if they charge it different ways,
if there's statues, there's different ways that is charged. And I don't have
the indictment right in front of me to be able to tell you in the
statue. But that's not atypical, that's actually very common. So it gives
a jury and option one or the other may be convicted of both, but
sentence just on one. That's exactly right. All right, Let's move on
to jan Michelle Kearney Lemon. I've met her once or twice. She appears
to be a nice lady. She is a person who is quite liberal.
And we've had a terrible rash of these burnouts, which is fast and furious
events in which individuals, dozens and dozens of individuals take over a city street.
I think the most reprehensible happened in the Lightle Tunnel about two or three
o'clock in the morning, where I seventy one was shut down for a period
of time and the traffic backed up to the bridge, in which cars of
generally are stolen cars, and they masquerade, they use a mask, which
is often today, and they also masquerade or hide the license plate, and
they just have fun shutting down a major thoroughfare and they do burnouts, record
it and put it on the internet. The cars tend to be stolen,
those involved tend to be young folks, maybe don't have a driver's license.
And so the vice mayor of our city says, we have to encourage this
behavior by putting it at the Hambleton County Fairgrounds. Can you explain? Can
you explain to me how that wouldn't solve the problem. I think we're only
it would be encouraging more lawlessness and creating additional problems. Well, you mentioned
about the young people and the videoing and making sure that they can get this
out on the internet. I guess this is part of what's happening with these
street takeovers, but often in other cities. Luckily we haven't had that yet
here, only because we haven't had arrest yet. But when the individuals have
been arrested in other cities, there's a lot of firearms being taken off of
them as well. So this is and I agree with you that the most
reprehensible of them all was the one inside the Lightle Tunnel. There were over
one hundred cars involved that night. Some of the cars are called blockers,
the ones inside what they call it the area where they do the burnouts is
the pits. They're always in the front. There's a staging area where the
speaks. And we believe that the little Tunnel one was down by Longworth Hall
and then they preceded. I also believe that some of these actors or not
from Cincinnati, and I also think that some of the organization occurred outside of
our city. But it is a problem. It's just reflects the bigger problems,
and then it just continues showing a lack of respect for law enforcement,
the decay of our society. People that were on that expressway or any of
these areas. They went to five different locations that same night, so they
regroup and then they go. They went to Hopple Street, and I think
there was one down by East End, by the school down there on Eastern
Avenue. Anyway, there's there was a number of different locations that they went
that night. But it's it's mob and it's violent, and the people that
may live in the areas where they are targeting, they don't deserve this.
Uh, the business is the one down by Hopple Street at Camp Washington Chili
and any of those businesses that were open. Nobody's going to go to those
areas when this is going on because there's a fear of mob violence eventually erupting.
You just don't know what can happen, but we need to put a
stop to this. I was so angry when I first saw that this came
to our city because I've seen it in other cities and I'm like, I'm
glad that's not happening here. But this just shows a demonstration of the decay
of our society, and we need to fight against that so that we can
keep Cincinnati beautiful and safe where we respect the rule of law. And this
is just a thumbs or the middle finger basically to everybody in our community,
but also particularly law enforcement. Wow, you know, I don't want to
get a dispute between you and jan Michelle Kearney Lemon, who is a well
intended lady. She wants to be the mayor after after a perival. She's
positioning herself. And how ridiculu isn't to provide space for these individuals who generally
have stolen cars and guns no licenses, from all over the region the Midwest
to come here and say, let's put together, let's have a big burnout
at the Hamity County Fairground. But that would incentivize the wrong behavior. And
as the prosecutor, Melissa, you can't arrest people. Generally, the cops
have to arrest. So I called Sergeant Dan Hills. He knows where the
bodies are buried. He's been around for a long time. I said,
how come you guys don't arrest him? He said, are you kidding me?
He said, we got one or two cars in the Central Business District
at midnight two three o'clock in the morning. And if they're on a run
and they get this, they show up, there's one hundred cars, they're
smoking, burnout, the guns are out, shots can be fired up in
the air. What's one or two cars going to do? And I'm thinking
what the cops don't want to get involved. The city leaders are saying,
kind of leave them alone. We're going to put up at the Hamity County
Fairgrounds. To me, this begins the destruction of any respect for law and
order and is directly the opposite of what's got to happen. Have you thought
about getting together with the chief of police or the mayor or somebody who's saying
that there's a new prosecutor in town and I'm not putting up with this.
Our office is working with the Cincinnati Police Department and trying to identify those that
are in these videos and who participated in these street burnouts. With regard to
our Vice mayor, as you said earlier, she's very nice, she's very
intelligent. She is a very nice person, but I think she's misguided on
how to shut this down and not encourage it. We cannot embolden these people
because if laws aren't being enforced. That's exactly what happens. People become more
brazen, and as I said earlier, it just then more bigger problems become.
You know that happened. You go to the fairgrounds. If somebody gets
killed or hurt, the county is going to get sued, of course,
right, you know. I mean that's just that's a side piece to this
whole, this whole idea. And I know she said it's just an idea.
But one other thing she said is that she doesn't want these people charged
with felonies. I think this is felony behavior that should be we need to
shut down. And we do not want this in our neighborhood, in our
city. I'm fighting here to keep our city beautiful, safe, where businesses
can flourish. Families can you know, you can raise a family, you
can start a business. Not where businesses are going to start leaving because there's
no enforcement of the law. You know, they can't make a living,
it does, it's not profitable for them. Look in any of these cities
around our country and you you know, targets are shutting down stores or whole
foods because the laws are not being enforced. We need to enforce the law
so that we have a beautiful, safe city where people want to live and
businesses want to come and businesses can flourish. I kind of wish city leaders
had the same approach as let's encourage us by giving them government facilities to commit
crimes. It's like, well, what are we talking about? And the
answer is why not charge them with felonies? If me and a few of
my buddies said, hey, let's shut down I seventy five, it's like
what the highway patrol would be after us and a heartbeat. All I'm saying
is this sends absolutely the wrong message to the next burnout, to the next
fast and furious show up using social media because city leaders have encouraged it by
supporting it. Well, Melissa, I agree with you one hundred percent though,
and you know, and it will lead to more organized crime, and
that's what we don't want here. We've got to be pushing hard and to
keep this where the people know that the rule law is respected. Are we
support our law enforcement, that we will, we will enforce the law,
that penalties will be given appropriately to the severity of the crime. So these
things need to be done, and if we don't do it. We're going
to lose our city and we're going to lose our county. It can't happen,
at least on your watch. It won't happen. All right, let's
continue, Melissa Powers once again, thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham
Show, and good luck with helping the city try to enforce laws. Good
luck, Thank you all night, Melissa Powers, Hamley County Prosecutor. Let's
continue with more. Hey, felonies are being committed, people's lives are at
risk, stolen cars and guns, burnouts on I seventy one. What the
hell, let's give them the Hamley County Fairgrounds. I'll stop him. Jesus,
Mary and Joseph. Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred Wow, when I
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