Joiner pleads guilty to 2021 murder
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LISBON -- Gary E. Joiner pleaded guilty on Monday to murder in the shooting death of Ryan Virden only a week before Joiner was scheduled for a jury trial in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
Chief Assistant County Prosecutor Ryan Weikart said he plans to ask for a lifetime sentence without the possibility for parole for 21 years at the sentencing hearing scheduled for May 23.
Joiner, 43, Homeworth Road, Homeworth, was appearing early Monday before Judge Scott Washam for a final status conference before next week's trial. After hearing Weikart state the current plea offer was the last one, Joiner discussed with his defense attorneys Colleen Hall-Dailey and Charley Kidder and decided to take the plea agreement.
Joiner pleaded guilty to murder, an unclassified felony; an accompanying firearm specification; and having weapons while under a disability, a third-degree felony. He faces up to at least a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole for 18 years, which is what his defense attorneys are expected to argue for on his behalf.
Virden, 32, formerly of Wooddale Drive, Lisbon, died of a gunshot wound to the chest in a bedroom of the home of Nicole M. Kenst on Homeworth Road, Homeworth, in March of 2021. He also had been shot in the shin. At the time of the shooting, investigators indicated Joiner admitted to both the 911 dispatcher and someone working in the sheriff's booking office that he had just killed someone.
Columbiana County Sheriff's Office investigators reportedly found a 22 long rifle found leaning against a tree outside and four shell casings from the same type of gun located within the home. Court documents at the time of the shooting had indicated Joiner may have forced his way into the home while yelling and then fired at least two shots at Virden.
Joiner, who was arrested by deputies on the day of the shooting, was initially charged with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated burglary, murder, having weapons while under disability and tampering with evidence. Weikart indicated the prosecutor's office, as part of the plea agreement, will no longer pursue and ask for the dismissal of the two counts of aggravated murder, the two counts of aggravated burglary and the tampering with evidence charge.
Weikart also said once Joiner is sentenced the prosecutor's office intends to no longer pursue a charge of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case, a third-degree felony. That separate case was not scheduled for another hearing until July.
Additionally, Joiner had been scheduled on Monday for a sentencing hearing on other charges he pleaded guilty to on April 19 -- felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and two counts of complicity to illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto grounds of a detention facility, each a third-degree felony. Those charges are for harming another inmate, Rusty Ray Altman on Sept. 11, 2021, and for attempting to get Kenst to bring him drugs while he was in the jail between Aug. 11 and Aug. 23, 2021. That sentencing hearing has been moved to Washam's courtroom and will be completed at the same hearing as the murder sentencing on May 23.