CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Aaron "Pudge" Ladson was shot to death in the driveway of his home before he had a chance to testify in court against the man convicted of killing three people at a Warrensville Heights barbershop.

Statements the 32-year-old made prior to his death were crucial in the conviction of Douglas Shine, who is serving life in prison in the Onbahis killings. Prosecutors want to use those same statements against Kevin McKinny, the man charged in Ladson's 2015 death. 

Ladson said both Shine, 21, and Kevin McKinney, 31, threatened him in the months leading up to his death. Those statements are a key piece in the state's theory that Shine and McKinney conspired to have him killed.

Prosecutors have said that McKinny killed Ladson to send a message to other witnesses in a case that saw many express fear of testifying at the prospect of similar retaliation.

McKinney's lawyers say the move would amount to allowing a homicide victim to testify against his killer from beyond the grave, using statements he made before he had direct knowledge of his killer. They say that would violate McKinney's Constitutional right to cross-examine his accusers.

Prosecutors argue that McKinney gave up his right to face this accuser because he is the reason Ladson cannot testify.

Judge Steven Gall will decide next week whether to allow Ladson's statements in McKinney's trial, which began with motion hearings on Monday.

The statements

Ladson told Warrensville Heights investigators on Feb. 13, 2015 that he saw Shine leave Chalk Linez Barbershop eight days earlier carrying two handguns. Shine pointed a handgun at Ladson, who was sitting inside his car in the shop's parking lot, and Shine twice uttered "I spared your life" before left the scene.

Shine had just fired more than 30 shots from two 9mm pistols inside the shop, and killed head barber William Gonzalez and customers Walter Barfield and Brandon White, who is Ladson's brother.

After Shine's comments, Ladson called Shine and asked him why he shot his brother, and Shine warned Ladson to keep quiet.

Shine was arrested. A grand jury indicted him in the shooting after Ladson told Warrensville Heights detectives what he saw.

Prosecutors say recordings of jail calls between Shine and McKinney following months show that the two discussed going to the Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts office and getting copies of all of the records to find out Pudge's real name, and the names of anyone else who might have identified Shine as the shooter.

Investigators also found text messages from the phone of a man named Lawrence Kennedy that show McKinney solicited Kennedy to kill Pudge, prosecutors said.

McKinney texted Kennedy the address of Ladson's Harvard Road home on June 3, 2015, but Kennedy and another man transposed two digits and burst into the wrong house five doors down, prosecutors said.

The masked men held the residents at gunpoint and demanded where "Pug" was, the victims told police. They eventually left when they realized they had the wrong house, prosecutors say. 

The next day, Kennedy texted McKinney "Checkmate," four minutes after Ladson was shot in his driveway as he was on his way to a court hearing on unrelated drug charges.

Two days later, on June 6, 2015, Kennedy was shot and killed in Cleveland, and investigators found the cellphone that revealed the messages.

Shine was convicted in November of the barbershop shooting and for his role in the conspiracy to kill Ladson. Judge Joan Synenberg sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury recommended Shine's execution. 

The arguments

Synenberg allowed the jury to see and hear Ladson's written and videotape statements during Shine's trial. Ladson was one of more than a dozen witnesses who identified Shine.

Prosecutors then argued at the time that it was unfair for Shine to benefit from a key witness being unable to testify because he plotted the witness's death.

Prosecutors are now using that same argument, a legal rule known as forfeiture by wrongdoing, to ask Gall to allow Ladson to testify in the trial of his own death. 

Prosecutors argued that McKinney forfeited his Constitutional right to confront his accuser, in this case Ladson, because he participated in the conspiracy that led to Ladson's murder. 

McKinney's lawyer, Jeffrey Saffold, countered that that same argument could be true in any homicide trial. Saffold told Gall that allowing Ladson's statements made months before his killing and could open the door for unchallengeable statements made by victims in every homicide trial to be admissible in court.

Saffold countered that Ladson's statements to investigators in the barbershop case would be relevant if McKinney was charged with carrying out the barbershop killings. 

"But if all you have is the homicide of Aaron Ladson, then I don't believe the government can use Aaron Ladson's statements to convict the alleged killer," Saffold said.

Prosecutors say that, even if they lose this argument, they could still seek to introduce Ladson's statements using a criminal procedure rule that allows evidence from other crimes related to the one being tried to be introduced. They could also seek to use the statements under evidence rules that allow prosecutors to establish a motive for the case being tried.

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