Local News
UPDATE: Hearing rescheduled for teen’s accused shooter
HUBBARD TOWNSHIP — A Hubbard Township woman accused of shooting and killing 15 year-old Robert Flynn of Masury on Aug. 10 was in Trumbull County Court on Tuesday where lawyers on both sides of the case said the evidence continues to be processed.
“Different discoveries (of evidence) have been exchanged,” said Chuck Murrow, who is prosecuting Karen Adams. 29 and her boyfriend, Paul Sundy Jr. 40, who is charged with tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice. “But there’s nothing I can really comment on.”
Adams is charged with murder, three counts of assault, and a count of tampering with evidence. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Murrow and Jerry Ingram, who is representing Adams, told Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Wyatt McKay that because they need time to process new evidence, her pre-trial hearing should be rescheduled.
“You have to be here on December 23,” McKay told Adams after both lawyers had agreed that would be an acceptable date.
“The discovery process is still unfolding,” Ingram said. “The prosecution and defense are making sure each side has everything they need.”
Both lawyers said a lot of new evidence is coming from investigators but neither said they could go into any specifics.
Sundy is scheduled to appear before Judge McKay on Jan. 17.
There could potentially be a change of plea before the case goes to trial, but Murrow said he doubts that will happen.
The shooting allegedly happened after a dispute between one of Flynn’s friends and Sundy, over a relationship with Sundy’s 16-year-old daughter.
Adams called 911 after midnight, telling the dispatcher that a group of teenagers had showed up at her house and was shooting at her and Sundy with BB guns. She said that she fired a “.22 varmint rifle” in the air to scare them off.
Three minutes later, a man who identified himself as John Ost called 911, and said that Flynn had been shot. He died later after being taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown and the Mahoning County coroner ruled the death a homicide.
Anthony Antonucci, who is from the same legal firm as Ingram, and had initially represented Adams, said in August that Adams shooting at the teenagers could have been justified in Ohio because of the Castle Doctrine that sometimes allows homeowners to defend themselves on their property.
Flynn’s family members have described him as a good kid, who hardly ever got into trouble, and probably only went along with Ost and the others that night because his friends were there.
He finished eighth grade in the spring, and would have been a freshman at Brookfield High School.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
