KIDNAPPING TRIAL Suspect has alibi, woman testifies

Jurors were to begin deliberating the case today.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Joseph Gonzalez couldn't have been in on the kidnapping of a 25-year-old Campbell woman and her children because he was fixing a leaky toilet and watching "Law & amp; Order" with a friend.
That's what Kelly Krantz told jurors Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where Gonzalez and Jose Placeres are on trial for conspiracy to kidnapping, conspiracy to attempted aggravated murder and four counts of kidnapping.
What police allege: Campbell police said the men were part of a scheme to abduct Maria Rosario Romano and her children in May. The family was taken as they got into their car. Romano was shot in the hip and uses a walker because of her injuries.
The family was held for about six hours in a closet at a Glenwood Avenue apartment. While they were being held, their captors made telephone calls to Romano's husband demanding $100,000 ransom. The money was not paid and the family was eventually released.
Placeres, 29, of Glenwood Avenue, is accused of helping plan the kidnapping but is not believed to have actually participated. Prosecutors say his gun was used in the abduction. Placeres' attorney, Jeffrey Limbian, said the gun had been sold to Placeres' uncle shortly before the kidnapping.
Prosecutors say Gonzalez, 21, of Ninth Street, Campbell, got into the car a few minutes after the abduction, put duct tape over Romano's eyes and mouth, then rode along and carried her upstairs into the Glenwood apartment.
This all happened around 9 p.m. May 2, authorities say. The identity of the actual assailant is not known.
Romano testified that she knew Gonzalez but could not identify him as one of the attackers. Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Pochiro said Romano's 7-year-old son picked Gonzalez's picture out of a photo lineup, but in court the boy also could not identify Gonzalez as one of the kidnappers.
Testimony: But Krantz, 24, said Gonzalez showed up at her house around 8:45 p.m. that night and stayed until nearly 11 p.m. Another woman testified earlier this week that Gonzalez got to her house shortly after 11 p.m. and stayed with her until the next morning.
Defense attorney Louis DeFabio said that's proof enough that Gonzalez could not have been involved and asked that Gonzalez be acquitted, but Judge R. Scott Krichbaum denied the request. Jurors were to begin deliberating today.
DeFabio said bloodstains were found on Gonzalez's pants, but DNA testing showed the blood was not Romano's.
Krantz said she and Gonzalez have been friends for six years and he regularly stopped by her house. That night, he fixed her leaky toilet, then stayed to watch "Law & amp; Order," her favorite program, she said.
She said no one from the Campbell Police Department or the county prosecutor's office ever contacted her for information, even after DeFabio gave them her name, address and telephone number.
Limbian did not present any witnesses. Neither defendant testified on his own behalf.
bjackson@vindy.com