Jury Deliberations Begin Monday in Chad Stephens Murder Trial

Jury deliberations start Monday to decide whether is guilty of the 2011 murder of Kim Slayko, reports the Falls News Press.

Its decision will rest, in part, on the closing arguments delivered Friday in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Stephens was found last September in the 3200 block of West Market Street in Fairlawn. Akron police, the U.S. Marshals Office Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force and assisted in the arrest.

Stephens, who was 22 at the time, was charged with murder with a firearm, a special felony; aggravated robbery with a firearm, a first-degree felony; and having weapons while under disability, a third-degree felony, according to court documents.

On August 31, 2011, Slayko was discovered in the backyard of a house in the 900 block of Baughman Street in Akron with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Slayko, a U.S. Army war veteran who served in Afghanistan and returned home to Cuyahoga Falls, was pronounced dead at age 33.