T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Meredith Broome is taken into custody to await sentencing Oct. 15. On Wednesday she was found guilty of obstruction of justice.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Meredith Broome’s retrial for obstruction of justice ended Wednesday with the jury returning a verdict of guilty.

The jury deliberated for about an hour before rendering a decision. Her sentencing hearing was set for Oct. 15.

Broome, 35, of Rome, Georgia, is the stepdaughter of Marvin Brown, former Powhatan Point mayor and businessman who was murdered in 2013. Charges against Broome stem from allegations that she assisted her mother, Brown’s widow Deborah Doty Brown, in preventing him from discovering Doty Brown’s thefts from his business. Specifically by acting on Doty Brown’s behalf in reportedly attempting to have someone place a false phone call to Brown’s answering machine, pretending to be his accountant’s assistant and canceling a meeting.

Doty Brown was convicted and served a three-year sentence for theft from his business. She has since been released from prison.

Marvin Brown was murdered in November of 2013 during a home invasion. Last year, Broome came under suspicion for arranging and paying for Brown’s murder. She has not been charged.

Broome was originally tried earlier this year of tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice. She was found innocent of the tampering but the jury was deadlocked on the obstruction charge. The retrial began Tuesday and included transcripts of the earlier trial’s testimony. Several past witnesses were recalled. Broome did not take the stand.

On Tuesday, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan reiterated the facts surrounding the case, stating Doty Brown stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Marvin Brown’s business to feed her drug and gambling habits, and Meredith Broome would purchase the drugs for Doty Brown. Flanagan and Broome’s attorney, Dennis McNamara, said the case depended on whether Broome had knowledge of her mother’s illegal activities.

Wednesday’s testimony included Det. Doug Cruse and Chief Det. Ryan Allar from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office, as well as a video of an interview with Broome used in the past trial. McNamara continued to press the reliability of the prosecution’s witnesses, including an admitted drug dealer and an individual who had been using drugs at the time. McNamara inquired if the witnesses had been offered a refrain from prosecution in exchange for testimony. Allar said this did not occur.

“That does happen upon occasions on a case-by-case basis, but it just did not happen in this case,” Allar elaborated after the trial. “No person in this trial was given any consideration and no charges were dropped or lessened because of testimony expected. It just did not happen. These people freely gave information without anything in return.”

After the verdict, Belmont County Common Pleas Judge John Vavra ordered her taken into custody to await sentencing.

“Because it is (a fifth-degree felony) and Ms. Broome has no criminal history, I believe community control sanctions in the end will be appropriate,” McNamara said. “I’d ask that she be allowed to stay out, pending her sentencing hearing and for the completion of a pre-sentence investigation.”

“The court is going to revoke her bond. She’ll be remanded to the custody of the sheriff at no bond,” Vavra said.

The verdict was met with expressions of satisfaction from Brown’s sons and other family members in court. Afterward, they thanked Flanagan and Allar for their work on the case.

“It’s a step in the right direction. The last few months have been kind of rough putting the pressure on them, but they’ve done a great job and we appreciate everything they’ve done,” Mike Brown, one of the sons, said. “We’re not satisfied. We’re going to move on and get the people responsible for Dad’s death.”

“I’m extremely pleased with this verdict and thankful for all the parties who put in a lot of extreme hard work in making this verdict happen,” Allar said. “I feel that today’s victory is just another step closer to holding all those responsible for having anything to do with the death of Marvin Brown accountable, and that’s the sheriff’s office’s goal.”

Flanagan did not comment on the case, but said sentencing would be Vavra’s discretion and Broome could qualify for local incarceration in jail or the Eastern Ohio Correction Center according to sentencing guidelines. He noted Broome has already served a month in jail in 2018 and by law this would count toward her sentence. Her 2018 bond had been revoked last May when she tested positive for marijuana.

Steven Moore, 38, who has pleaded guilty to killing Brown, is awaiting sentencing in December for aggravated murder and aggravated robbery charges with gun specifications. Vavra ordered that there be no communication between Broome and Moore. He faces a possible life sentence, plus extra time for the burglary charge.

“There is to be no contact whatsoever,” Vavra said. “Make sure that any and all steps are taken so there can be no contact or communication directly or indirectly between the two of them.”