GUILTY OH - Major Howard, 3, killed in drive-by shooting, Cleveland, 15 Sept 2015

A 23-year-old Warrensville Heights man was taken into custody in connection to the drive-by shooting that killed 3-year-old Major Howard.

Cleveland police obtained an arrest warrant Tuesday morning charging Aaron Dunnings in the boy's death. Members of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested him the same morning on the 700 block of East 90th Street in Cleveland, according to Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia. Dunnings faces a charge of aggravated murder in the Sept. 15 shooting.

Authorities are still searching for Donnell Lindsey who investigators think was also involved in the shooting.

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The mother of Major Howard testified in court on Monday that she recognized Donnell Lindsey as the man who killed her 3-year-old son in 2015 after police released his photograph to news outlets.

Brittany Anderson said she never saw Lindsey before the Sept. 15 shooting on East 113th Street near Benham Avenue.

"But when I saw his picture on the news, I knew it was him," she said Monday. "He shot my son."

The testimony came as part of a days-long hearing where Lindsey's lawyers will ask Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell to suppress statements to police from Anderson and another eyewitness who each identified Lindsey as the shooter. The lawyers plan to argue that the identification was unfairly influenced because they were exposed to Lindsey's photograph and street rumors about the killing before they identified him to police.

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The man set to face trial Monday in the killing 3-year-old Major Howard stood before a judge and said he no longer trusted his court-appointed defense lawyers.

Donnell Lindsey, who faces life in prison without parole if convicted of aggravated murder and other charges, asked Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John P. O'Donnell to delay his trial so his family could hire a new lawyer.

"I have a conflict of interest with my attorneys," Lindsey, 24, said. "I don't trust them."

O'Donnell denied Lindsey's request and ordered the trial begin with jury selection.

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Assistant Cuyahoga County Public Defender Jack Greene said that Donnell Lindsey was wrongly accused of the killing within hours of the shooting because the drive-by gunfire that killed the boy came from the rental car his client used to deal heroin.

Greene's claim came during opening statements Wednesday afternoon in Lindsey's trial on aggravated murder and other charges. If convicted, Lindsey could spent the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Greene contended that those social media posts led eyewitnesses, police tipsters and investigators to focus in on Lindsey, instead of the three men who were actually in the car

Prosecutors plan to rely largely on eyewitness testimony from Major's mother, Brittany Anderson, and another member of the Benham Boys, Robert ""RJ" Scott, who each identified Lindsey as the gunman to investigators days after the shooting, Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia said.

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The self-described former gang member who previously identified Donnell "Nell" Lindsey as a suspect in Major Howard's slaying testified Wednesday that he never actually saw anyone shoot the 3-year-old boy.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia spent hours prodding Robert "RJ" Scott III over his reversal from statements he gave to investigators in 2016. Faraglia eventually thrust a picture of the boy's body in front of Scott and demanded the truth.

Scott's testimony, which prosecutors had expected, was a setback in the state's case against Lindsey, who is charged with aggravated murder and dozens of other charges in the Sept. 15, 2015 drive-by killing on East 113th Street near Union Avenue.

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Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Anna Faraglia and Andrew Gatti told jurors that bullet trajectories, cellphone records and eyewitness testimony from Major's mother proved that on Sept. 15, 2015, Donnell Lindsey fired several shots from the passenger seat of a car that sprayed bullets at members of a rival street gang gathered at a vigil on East 113th Street.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Public Defender Jack Greene, one of Lindsey's attorneys, said prosecutors failed to prove that a bullet fired from the car was the bullet that killed Major.

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Prosecutors' strongest witness was Major's mother, Brittany Anderson, who testified last week that she saw Lindsey shooting from the passenger seat of a white Toyota Yaris before she jumped to the ground.

Lindsey's lawyers pounced on the fact that Anderson did not come forward and identify Lindsey as the shooter for several days. She named his as the suspect after several people identified him on social media, after police got an arrest warrant and after investigators released his photograph to news outlets

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Donnell Lindsey, who two days earlier chuckled and shook his head at prosecutors' case against him in closing statements, stood silently as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell read the jury's verdict.

He now faces life in prison after jurors convicted him of murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, weapons charges and arson. He was found not guilty of two counts of aggravated murder.

O'Donnell will sentence Lindsey on July 12.

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On Monday, days after Major would have turned 5, Anderson clutched her own mother's hand as she waited to learn the fate of Donnell Lindsey, the man on trial for killing her son.

All she could do Monday was listen as Common Pleas Judge John P. O'Donnell read the jury's verdict which came after more than two days of deliberations.

"On count 3, murder," the judge said, "the jury finds that you are guilty."

Major's mother and family members covered their mouths with their hands and began to sob.

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