BOARDMAN KILLING Jury indicts man on 2 counts
The Boardman man has been in jail since the night of the killing on unrelated charges.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- As Boardman and Struthers police officers gathered for a press conference, Mahoning County deputy sheriffs served a Boardman man with a murder indictment.
Michael J. Hogan, 36, of Forestridge Drive was served with the secret indictment by a county grand jury Thursday afternoon as he sat in the county jail for a parole violation.
He is accused of driving the car that struck and killed John K. Ruble Sr., 71, of Omar Street, Struthers, the afternoon of May 31. Ruble was killed as he tried to stop the theft of his wife's purse.
Ruble and his wife, Louise, 69, were dropping off recyclables behind the fire station on South Avenue when Ruble tried to stop the driver of the car and was run over. He died in the ambulance while being transported to the hospital.
The grand jury also indicted Hogan on one count of aggravated robbery in the case.
"He was a suspect from the beginning," said Lt. John Heaver of the Boardman Police Department at the press conference. "We looked at other people, but he was our main suspect."
Heaver said Hogan had been arrested between six and eight times in the past four to five years and charged with stealing purses from vehicles.
Police also considered other factors: Hogan lived about three blocks from the scene of the crime; he fit the physical description given by witnesses; and Hogan's mother owned a car -- a dark blue 1987 Cadillac -- which also matched witness descriptions, Heaver added.
"This is a tragic case," he said. "We had the theft of $36 and a man lost his life."
Hogan has been housed in the county lockup since that evening after he was arrested by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority on an unrelated parole violation.
Processed car
After learning of the arrest, Struthers officers recovered the car at an East Myrtle Avenue residence on Youngstown's South Side the next day and began processing it for evidence. Township trustees recently approved funding for the police department to send the car to a DNA testing site in Maryland for additional tests.
Boardman Police Chief Jeffrey Patterson said since Hogan was already in jail and posed no threat, investigators were able to take their time with the investigation. "We were able to be patient and methodical about the case," he continued.
Officers waited until they had preliminary lab results and eyewitness identifications before presenting the case to the grand jury. Evidence recovered from the vehicle included a belt loop police believe was torn from Ruble's pants and several hairs from his scalp.
Heaver declined to comment on whether Hogan has confessed or cooperated with investigators.
The murder case is the first for the South County Homicide Task Force, which went into effect April 1 and is made up of police departments in southeastern Mahoning County.