LISBON — Elvin EJ Tisdale, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for aggravated murder and other charges for the 2021 death of Brycen Douglas, had paperwork filed to challenge his conviction and sentence.

Defense attorneys Paul Conn and Coleen Hall Dailey filed the notice of appeal with the Seventh District Court of Appeals on Wednesday. They requested the appointment of appellate counsel to represent Tisdale for the appeal.

On Tuesday, they filed motions for aquittal and a new trial in the Columbiana County Common Pleas Court case, alleging “the prosecutor improperly misled the jury to believe the defendant claimed alibi in both testimony and closing argument.”

They also alleged the prosecution misled the jury to believe an investigator formerly with the East Liverpool Police Department and agents with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation were experts and to give testimony of opinion without properly qualifying them as experts. They claimed the prosecutor was permitted to elicit hearsay evidence and the testimony of an alleged co-conspirator without proving the conspiracy. They claimed the court erred in not suppressing the use of out of state warrants for telephone information.

No decision has been made on the motions and no hearing has been scheduled.

A jury found Tisdale guilty in June on all counts — aggravated murder and murder, both unclassified felonies, both with findings for use of a firearm, and third-degree felony having weapons while under disability. Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton followed the sentencing recommendation of county Assistant Prosecutor Steve Yacovone, who tried the case along with county Assistant Prosecutors Tammie Riley Jones and Christopher Weeda.

The two murder charges merged for sentencing, with Yacovone requesting the sentence be based on the more serious aggravated murder charge and recommending life without the possibility of parole, which was the sentence Tisdale received from Bickerton for the aggravated murder.

She sentenced him to an additional mandatory three years for the firearm specification and an additional 36 months or three years for the having weapons under disability charge related to being prohibited from having or using a gun due to a previous felony conviction for drugs. For a separate drug case, she also sentenced him to 10 months in prison for a 2024 fifth-degree felony charge of aggravated possession of drugs. He pleaded guilty to the drug charge earlier this year. He was accused of possessing methamphetamine on Aug. 2, 2023 while he was an inmate at the county jail for the then pending murder case.

He received credit for 765 days served in jail.

Douglas, who was just 20 years old at the time of his death, was sitting on a porch with some friends in East Liverpool’s east end when Tisdale and another shooter walked behind and between two houses across the street and opened fire on the porch.

mgreier@mojonews.com