The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

December 21, 2009

UPDATE: Home invader admits robbery

By Matt Snyder

SHARON — A Warren, Ohio, man who was beaten up by a Sharon family he tried to rob in 2008 pleaded guilty last week to robbery and illegal possession of a firearm.

Jauton Jamal Lee, 30, pleaded guilty before Common Pleas President Judge Francis J. Fornelli.

Lee knocked on the door of Byron Newberry’s Ravine Place home at about 11 p.m. Feb. 27, 2008, then pushed his way in and pulled a gun, Newberry testified at a March 2008 preliminary hearing.

Newberry said that Lee looked high and demanded money and marijuana. He threatened to shoot Newberry. When Newberry’s son and girlfriend, Donna Ford, heard the commotion and came downstairs, Lee allegedly pointed the gun at them.

Soon the whole family piled on, with Newberry and his son trying to restrain Lee’s hand and Ms. Ford hitting Lee in the head with a knife sharpener, Newberry testified.

“My woman beat ... him with a bat,” Newberry said at the hearing. “He was like a wild man in my house … He’s lucky to be alive.”

Lee’s gun went off during the fray and the bullet hit a wall, Sharon police said. When Cpl. Troy Widmyer arrived, he testified that he saw the family and Lee in a pile.

Lee was treated for injuries to his face and head at the hospital of Sharon Regional Health System. The family suffered minor injuries, including what police said might have been a powder burn on Ms. Ford’s hand from when Lee allegedly fired the gun.

Newberry said at the hearing that he’d never seen Lee before in his life, and also said that neither he nor anyone in his family sells or uses marijuana.

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