LISBON — A judge recently overruled two of the many motions filed to suppress cell phone evidence in the aggravated murder case against Elvin EJ Tisdale.

A decision on the several remaining motions to suppress cell phone evidence in the case remains pending in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, along with motions to suppress cell phone evidence in the case against co-defendant Allen N. Tisdale.

Elvin EJ Tisdale, 34, Newell, W.Va., and Allen N. Tisdale, 24, whose most recent address was listed as Lisbon, are each charged with aggravated murder, murder and firearm specifications in the 2021 shooting death of Brycen Douglas, 20, who was found shot to death on the front porch of a Pennsylvania Avenue home in East Liverpool on July 15, 2021.

Elvin EJ Tisdale is also facing an additional charge of having weapons while under disability, due to being prohibited from having or using a gun due to a previous felony conviction.

The cases are being handled together by Judge Megan Bickerton, with a status hearing set for 9 a.m. Monday and a suppression hearing still set for 1 p.m. Aug. 30. Also pending is a defense motion to suppress DNA evidence in the case against Elvin EJ Tisdale.

Since the two motions to suppress filed on Feb. 9 involved search warrants issued by Bickerton, fellow Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam reviewed them. He issued the decision to overrule them “in their entirety.”

The remaining motions to suppress filed on Feb. 8 involved search warrants issued through East Liverpool Municipal Court, which no longer exists. A decision on those motions remains pending by Bickerton.

All the defense motions on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9 were filed by defense attorneys Coleen Hall Dailey and Paul Conn for EJ, with similar motions filed in July by defense attorney T. Robert Bricker for Allen.

The motions requested that all items received by the East Liverpool Police Department as a result of 2021 search warrants be thrown out as evidence. Each motion represented an individual phone number, with evidence including cell site records and triangulation records. Through the motions, the defense questioned the authority of the courts to issue the search warrants, saying the information sought was outside of the territorial jurisdiction for the courts. All East Liverpool Municipal Court cases had to be transferred to the county Municipal Court when the East Liverpool court closed in September 2022.

In his ruling, Washam disagreed with the arguments made by the defense about territorial jurisdiction, noting that the federal Stored Communications Act permits federal magistrates and courts of competent jurisdiction to issue warrants for cell service providers with no territorial jurisdiction on their authority. He wrote that that SCA defines a court of competent jurisdiction to include a court of general criminal jurisdiction authorized by the law to issue warrants. In these two motions, the court was Common Pleas Court.

As for probable cause for the warrants, Washam wrote that the affidavits of the investigator, former East Liverpool police Capt. Darin Morgan, who’s now an investigator with the county Prosecutor’s Office, provided “ample probable cause” for Bickerton to issue the two search warrants.

“The affidavits inform Judge Bickerton of a number of things that are both relevant and timely regarding the ongoing investigation into the suspected murder of Brycen Douglas,” Washam wrote.

He also found that the search warrants were not overly broad or general, they were specific and detailed what information was to be seized.

Both Tisdales remain incarcerated in the Columbiana County Jail under $1 million cash or surety bonds. The state is represented by county Assistant Prosecutors Steve Yacovone and Tammie Riley Jones.

The indictment was issued in January 2023, with EJ taken into custody in January 2023 in West Virginia and finally arriving in Columbiana County in May 2023 after attempting to fight extradition. Allen was taken into custody in March 2024 in Youngstown.