YOUNGSTOWN Man from Flordia pleads guilty in car chase with state police

The prosecutor recommended a two-year prison sentence.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Florida man who led authorities on a chase from Mahoning County to the suburbs of Cleveland is facing two years in prison.
Reed O. Melvin, 33, of Seminole, Fla., pleaded guilty Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to charges of felonious assault, failure to obey a police order and receiving stolen property.
In exchange for the plea, assistant prosecutor Robert Andrews recommended a two-year prison sentence. If he received maximum sentences, Melvin could get up to 14 years, Andrews said.
Judge Robert Lisotto ordered that a background check be done before he sentences Melvin.
Andrews said Melvin had apparently been in Pittsburgh just before his arrest for the chase in November 2001, but it's unclear why he was in the Youngstown area. He said a trooper from the Ohio State Highway Patrol's turnpike division tried to stop Melvin for speeding, and the chase was on.
Wouldn't stop
Melvin refused to stop, despite being pursued by troopers with their emergency lights and sirens activated. He fled northwest to Bedford, a community just south of Cleveland.
Andrews and defense attorney John P. Laczko said authorities eventually stopped Melvin by laying spiked sticks across the roadway to deflate his tires. When the tires went flat, Melvin jumped from the car and ran, but was soon caught.
"Thank God nobody got hurt," Laczko said. He said Melvin has no memory of the chase.
The felonious assault charge was filed because authorities said Melvin nearly hit a trooper while trying to avoid the spikes. The car he was driving was stolen from Pittsburgh, which was the reason for the stolen property charge, Andrews said.
At one point, Melvin was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was sent to a psychiatric facility for treatment and restored to competency, enabling him to enter the plea.