Armed robbery

Armed robbery
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 43-year-old Austintown man was robbed of $300 by a ski-masked gunman who emerged from a garage in the 600 block of Clearmount Drive on Wednesday.
The victim gave the gunman, who is listed as being 18 or 19, his wallet containing the cash, credit cards, checks and an identification card at 5:20 p.m.
Girl given pills
AUSTINTOWN -- A 14-year-old eighth-grade boy at Austintown Middle School gave three prescription pills to a 12-year-old seventh-grade girl and told her they would "make her happy," police said.
Police report the boy gave the girl the pills in a hallway after school Tuesday.
The girl told police she showed the pills to a friend on the bus, who told her to throw them away. When the girl arrived home, she gave the pills to her mother, who notified police. The pills were identified as a central nervous system stimulant, an amphetamine and an anti-psychotic drug.
Police reports say the boy admitted giving the girl the pills.
Gas station break-in
CAMPBELL -- A motor vehicle may have been used to break through the door of Blaze Oil, 220 McCartney Road, late Tuesday, allowing a thief or thieves to gain entry and steal nearly $4,000 in cash plus cartons of merchandise.
Police were summoned to the gas station by an alarm about 11:15 p.m. They discovered the front door had been broken; the front counter was also vandalized. When the station owner arrived, he told police a cash register containing $3,900 in cash was missing along with two cartons of cigars, two boxes of watches and display lighters.
Also Wednesday, someone drove into the front of Ally's Food Market on South Avenue, leaving parts of a taillight, possibly from a 1986 Oldsmobile Delta 88, at the scene early Wednesday. Inside the store, the owner discovered that the cash register had been smashed. Lottery tickets, cigarettes and a CD player were stolen.
Sex with minor
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ronald Hathman, 25, of Youngstown, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to one count of unlawful sexual contact with a minor. The charge was reduced from rape, for which he was indicted earlier this year.
Judge Robert Lisotto ordered a background check before sentencing. Hathman is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl in September 2001 at a Plum Street house.
Woman pleads guilty
YOUNGSTOWN -- An Otis Street woman who stabbed her boyfriend at a bus station in May pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated assault.
Shnikia M. Carver, 19, faces up to 18 months in prison. Judge Jack Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered a background check before she is sentenced.
Robert Andrews, assistant prosecutor, said Carver's boyfriend, Charles Bush, threw a soft drink on her during an argument at the WRTA bus station downtown. Carver became angry and stabbed Bush about seven times, Andrews said. Bush survived.
Carver was originally indicted on a felonious assault charge, but the charge was reduced in exchange for her plea of guilty.
Vice squad raids
YOUNGSTOWN -- Members of the vice squad entered homes at 368 Edwards St. and 2211 Oakwood Ave. on Wednesday afternoon.
At the Edwards house, Richard Sly, 27, of Pasadena Avenue was arrested on a charge of trafficking in cocaine. Police reported they found bags of crack packaged for sale. Police said they found a bag of marijuana on Edward Griffin, 48, who lives at the house, and arrested him on a charge of drug abuse-marijuana.
At the Oakwood house, they said, they found bags of crack on top of the mantel, a rifle inside a couch and a scale with drug residue. A 5-month-old baby and 2-year-old child were in the house during the raid. Derrick Brown, 22, of Crandall Avenue was arrested on charges of drug abuse-cocaine, child endangering, possession of drug paraphernalia and, because of a prior conviction, illegal possession of a weapon.
Task force reports find
YOUNGSTOWN -- Members of the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force looking for a fugitive Wednesday at 1450 Lansdowne Ave. said they found two dried marijuana plants hanging in a closet and a plastic bag of dried marijuana leaves.
The resident, Willie J. Green, 25, was charged with drug abuse-marijuana.