Allen Tisdale follows Columbiana County Assistant Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones into the courtroom at Common Pleas Court Thursday morning to testify in the aggravated murder case against his cousin, Elvin EJ Tisdale. The trial is expected to continue this morning. (Photo by Mary Ann Greier)

LISBON — Allen Tisdale said he saw his cousin Elvin EJ Tisdale and Curtis Holland, shoot 9mm guns from between two houses on Pennsylvania Avenue in East Liverpool while he acted as lookout, learning later that Brycen Douglas was shot and killed at a house across the street.

His testimony Thursday morning in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court put Elvin Tisdale at the scene of the murder they were both charged with committing.

DNA evidence on shell casings found between those two houses belonged to Elvin Tisdale and no one else, an expert testified. Cell phone location data put Elvin Tisdale’s two phones pinging off of a cell tower in the area of the east end of East Liverpool, according to Investigator Darin Morgan, a former East Liverpool police detective who’s still investigating the case.

Morgan also testified about the many lies he heard during his one and only interview with Elvin Tisdale, including that he was home in West Virginia the night of July 14 into July 15, 2021 when evidence showed he was not, that he had not handled a gun for a long time when evidence showed he had and that his mother was visiting relatives in New Jersey when his cell phone records and former girlfriend said she was actually in West Virginia.

He testified extensively about the investigation, the fact that no other shell casings were found anywhere else, about the interviews done, how a foot impression taken from the scene was from a Timberland boot and how the suspects included Holland, the two Tisdales and Travis Kidder.

He pointed out a car that was seen from a video on Dewey Avenue and resembled the back of a vehicle owned by Elvin Tisdale’s mother, noting the times the vehicle turned onto Chafin Street and turned around and left thirty minutes before the homicide, with a light from possibly a cell phone seen inside the car corresponding to EJ receiving a text on his phone. Then the car returned and was seen turning onto Dewey and then onto Chafin five to 10 minutes before the shooting. The vehicle then came back out and left after the shooting. On another video from Erie Street played for jurors, a series of gunshots could be heard. He talked about the DNA evidence on the shell casings, showing one profile, EJ’s. He talked about interviewing EJ, about interviewing Allen.

Jurors heard all of this, along with testimony about possible attempts to set up an alibi and Elvin Tisdale’s questions about a video camera’s range near where the shooting took place when the state continued to present it’s case against him. His trial will continue this morning.

Elvin Tisdale, 35, Newell, W.Va., and his cousin, Allen Tisdale, 25, Lisbon, were indicted together in 2023, with each of them charged with aggravated murder, murder and firearm specifications for allegedly killing 20-year-old Brycen Douglas, who was found shot to death on the front porch of a Pennsylvania Avenue home in East Liverpool on July 15, 2021.

Elvin was also charged with having weapons while under disability due to being prohibited from having or using a gun due to a previous felony conviction.

Allen pleaded guilty last month to a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter and complicity for a weapons charge, with his testimony required as part of the plea deal. He’ll face sentencing on July 21, with county Assistant Prosecutor Steve Yacovone saying at the time that he’ll be recommending a 10-year prison term.

No charges have been filed against Curtis Holland at this point. Travis Kidder, the man identified by Allen Tisdale as the driver, was charged with obstructing official business for allegedly lying to investigators. His case remains pending.

During his testimony under questioning by county Assistant Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones, Allen Tisdale appeared in an orange jail jumpsuit and was handcuffed. He admitted to lying initially in interviews, claiming none of them were involved in the shooting. But then he answered questions about a letter he sent to his mom back in December 2024 which he read aloud in the courtroom. He said he wasn’t going to keep sitting in jail and was contacting his attorney and helping himself to a lighter sentence. He said he really wanted to help EJ, but said “I didn’t shoot anybody.”

At the time he wrote to his mother, he did not have any agreement and when he spoke to Morgan in December 2024 about what happened, nothing had been promised to him, although during cross-examination by defense attorney Coleen Hall Dailey, he did admit there was an expectation of a deal. The plea agreement did not happen until last month.

Allen Tisdale said that when this first happened in 2021, “I was led to believe this wouldn’t fall back on me,” indicating he was told that by Curtis Holland. He then relayed what happened leading up to the shooting, how he was aware of the earlier murder of Dion McMillon, who was shot to death on May 19, 2021 in East Liverpool, and they had all been friends with him. He talked about how he, Curtis and Travis were riding around smoking marijuana and stopped earlier in front of the house on Pennsylvania Avenue where the shooting later occurred. He said Curtis said a couple words to the people on the porch, including a man named Isaiah “Ike” Matthews.

Allen Tisdale said they ended up going to West Virginia to pick up EJ, he thought for a smoke ride. Then he talked about riding around some more and ending up back in East Liverpool, how he, EJ and Curtis exited the vehicle and ran between two houses across the street from the house on the main street in the east end, how Travis stayed in the car, how EJ and Curtis had guns but he didn’t, how he was the lookout and heard gunshots and saw them shooting. Then they got back in the vehicle and left.

He also talked about what happened next, now they stopped at a house in Glenmoor where EJ spoke to someone he described as an old white guy with gray hair, supposedly about dismantling guns. He didn’t know him. Then they drove to another cousin’s house in East Liverpool where they burned all their clothes.

Hall Dailey questioned Allen Tisdale extensively about previously telling Morgan that there was no way he was involved, no involvement by EJ or Curtis either and then questioned him about the route they all took in the car. She also questioned him about telling someone else that he shot Brycen.

Other witnesses included Nicholas Weyand, who was handcuffed in a jail jumpsuit, and Natalie Mason, who had been EJ’s girlfriend at the time of the shooting. Weyand, who had been friends with EJ, said EJ called him and asked him if the police came, to tell them he had been to his house, which wasn’t far from the shooting scene, to give him money. He also asked him about the camera at the house and how far the camera could see.

Mason testified that she had worked and was out with friends the night of July 14, 2021 and into July 15, 2021 and then went to EJ’s house at around 3 a.m. He was not there and his mother let her in. At some point, she later learned that he may have been involved in the shooting, which she confirmed for Yacovone. She then got questioned by police and learned that EJ said he was with her that night and that was not true. During his testimony, Morgan reviewed phone messages between EJ and Mason which showed EJ had lied.

Morgan also said during the course of the investigation, that he was told that this shooting was in retaliation for the murder of Dion McMillon. At that point, that case was still active with no arrests.

David Niemeyer, a forensic scientist with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified about the DNA evidence, explaining that no DNA profile is the same except for in the case of identical twins. Qualified by Judge Megan Bickerton as a DNA expert, he said one swab was taken of all seven shell casings found in the alley between the two houses across the street from where the victim was shot. A single source of DNA was found for an unknown male. That DNA was put through a date base and came up as Elvin Tisdale. Once he had a DNA sample from Elvin Tisdale, it was matched to the DNA on the shell casings. Yacovone asked him if he would have expected to receive DNA standards from anyone else and he said no since the lone DNA was confirmed as Elvin Tisdale’s. Defense attorney Paul Conn questioned him about the process used to determine the DNA and about similarities for relatives, with Yacovone confirming no two people have the same DNA

First to testify Thursday was Dr. Joseph Felo, chief deputy medical examiner and a forensic pathologist for the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office in Cleveland. He performed the autopsy on the victim, Bryson Douglas, and said the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the neck and laceration of the cervical spinal cord. Manner of death was homicide. Felo said the bullet entered the left side of his neck, went straight across, severed his spinal cord, which rendered him paralyzed, and exited the right side. There was also a second wound, an abrasion located on the upper chest, shoulder area. Felo said that suggested his neck would have been closer in proximity to the abrasion.

“If this victim would have been turning, would that be consistent?” county Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Weeda asked as he demonstrated the victim turning his head. “That’s correct,” Felo said. Hall Dailey asked several questions about the path of the bullet.

The trial is expected to continue this morning, with the judge indicating to jurors that they may get the case sometime today for deliberations.