DOUBLE HOMICIDE Teamwork led to quick arrests

Cooperation crossed the counties and is 'most important,' the prosecutor says.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NEWTON FALLS -- Facing a gruesome double homicide in his rural, three-officer community, Police Chief Frank Tomaino of Newton Township knew he'd need help to carry out the investigation.
"This was probably the most gruesome crime in the history of Newton Falls," Tomaino said. "It was just a senseless taking of human life."
Help in the case came quickly from agencies in Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
About the second day of the investigation, Tomaino asked Trumbull County Sheriff's Sgt. Peter J. Pizzulo of the Homicide Task Force to head it up. That way, Tomaino's department could keep a grip on normal operations in the township, he said.
Pizzulo "did an outstanding job of organizing the team," and all parts of the team worked great together, Tomaino said. Arrests made in only 10 days from the time of the homicides illustrate the very fast work on such a big case, he added.
County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said this investigation is "one of the best things we've done in the past 20 years."
"We put this together with teamwork," Watkins said. "That's the most important thing."
An affidavit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court shows the amount of evidence collected in support of aggravated murder and other charges against Jermaine McKinney, 25, of Girard and Youngstown. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Charges
McKinney is accused of killing Wanda Rollyson, 70, and Rebecca Cliburn, 43, in Rollyson's 3754 Newton-Bailey Road home Dec. 21 after plotting to rob the two.
Two female accomplices from Warren also face charges.
An investigative team was in place within a couple of hours of finding the bodies at 5:42 p.m Dec. 22, including personnel from the Trumbull County coroner's office and sheriff's department and state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, Tomaino said.
He called the investigation "one of the best I've seen in my career." Tomaino has been a police officer 31 years, three as Newton Township's police chief. Before that he worked as a deputy in the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department.
"It's hard to say how much it means to our community to bring this to a close so quickly," Tomaino said, adding that he knows the strain on many departments was great while their officers were concentrating on Newton Township's case.
Tomaino credited Youngstown police for McKinney's arrest a week ago after police said he holed up in a North Side house and fired numerous shots at officers. McKinney faces 14 charges of felonious assault on a police officer in that occurrence. He's accused of firing on police until he ran out of ammunition and surrendered. No injuries were reported.
Officials have said most of the parties involved in the conspiracy are in custody, but other arrests are possible.
In affidavit
According to the affidavit, investigators got their first lead on the identity of the perpetrators by tracking a call from a Western Union operator indicating that someone had tried to use a debit card belonging to Rollyson. That led authorities to Amy Corll, a former girlfriend of McKinney's.
On Dec. 28, authorities discovered that Keyatta J. Riley Hines, 20, of Coit Street, Warren, might be involved in the crime and interviewed her. She gave authorities much of the information about what happened the day of the murders.
Hines said the plan was for Mc-Kinney to get Cliburn to go to the house under the pretext of having sex while Rollyson was at church, and to have McIver come later to assist with the robbery.
Hines said around 6:30 p.m. Dec. 21, she drove McKinney and Cliburn to the house and returned to Warren to get McIver.
It is believed Rollyson came home from church around 9:30 p.m., Tomaino said.
Hines and McIver arrived at the house sometime after 9 p.m., and Hines entered to find an elderly woman in a "big puddle" of blood.
Hines said she did not see Cliburn, but McKinney told her he had "beat her with a crowbar." McKinney also later told Hines he had shot Rollyson twice in the head.
The affidavit states that Hines followed McKinney's directions to find items of value in the house. She took Rollyson's ATM card, driver's license, credit cards, cell phone and $93 in cash. Hines was charged with complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to aggravated burglary of Rollyson and Cliburn and complicity to kidnapping Cliburn. Hines entered a plea of guilty on Friday to all three charges; she'll be sentenced later after she cooperates in the case against McKinney.
Complicity charge
Jazzmine McIver, 21, who is known as "Jazz," of 1300 Roberts St., Warren, is charged with complicity to aggravated robbery. McIver stayed in the car at Rollyson's residence, then drove Hines and McKinney to Youngstown, where McKinney got other clothing. The three then went to a vacant house in the Sharonline area, and he burned clothing from himself and Cliburn and other items such as gloves, the affidavit states.
Tomaino said these people also worked on the case: Jeff Urso and Alan Sprocket with the Howland Police Department; Mike Yanucci with the sheriff's department; Mike Stabile and Mike Merritt of the Warren Police Department; Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, the county's forensic pathologist; Bob Antal of Lordstown Police Department; Special Agents Jim Cioti and Ed Carlini with BCI & amp; I; Lee Bethune and Brian Peterson from the state fire marshal's office; Earl Quinn and Scott Milani of the Newton Township Police Department; Ron Moran of the Mahoning County Dive Team; Phil Chance of the Humility of Mary Health Services police; Bill Bolden and 12 other officers with the U.S. Marshals Service; and Chuck Morrow with the prosecutor's office.
runyan@vindy.com