MAHONING VALLEY Mother pleads innocent to crushing girl with car

The Austintown woman said she wanted to end her daughter's abuse and send her to a better place.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- An Austintown woman who told police she ran over her daughter with her car is in Trumbull County jail today after pleading innocent to aggravated murder.
Sherry Delker, 27, of North Turner Road, entered the plea during an arraignment Saturday afternoon in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, said Weathersfield Police Chief Joseph Consiglio.
Delker's daughter, Samantha Martin, 6, was pronounced dead Friday at St. Elizabeth Health Center. An autopsy showed Samantha had been crushed to death.
Judge Peter Kontos ordered Delker to be held without bond.
Affidavit: According to an affidavit filed with the court by Consiglio, Delker told police she wanted to send Samantha to a "better place" because "they were 'trying to take her baby away.'" It does not identify the people Delker believed were trying to take Samantha.
The affidavit also states that Samantha recently had been sexually abused. It does not say by whom.
Delker told police that she wanted to stop the abuse. The affidavit also states she told state troopers that her boyfriend did not want to date a woman with children.
What happened: Police think the killing occurred Friday morning on Prospect Street near state Route 46 in Mineral Ridge, next to St. Mary's Catholic Church. Scuff marks that could have been made when a body was dragged by a car were found on Prospect Street, and clothes and hair follicles were embedded in the pavement. Crime-lab officers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol also found a tire tread on Samantha's shirt that resembled the tread on Delker's car's front tires. The vehicle is a black, 1990 two-door Chevrolet Lumina.
Delker told police she went to St. Mary's church to ask forgiveness after sending her daughter to the "better place."
An investigator from the Mahoning County Coroner's Office called Weathersfield and Austintown police at about 9:50 a.m. Friday and asked them to come to the morgue at St. Elizabeth. The investigator wanted help in determining where Samantha was killed.
Delker told police at the morgue that a white woman driving a blue pickup or minivan had hit Samantha on Prospect Street. The woman then drove away, Delker said.
Weathersfield police called the state patrol for help, and it flew investigators by helicopter from Columbus.
When questioned by police Friday evening, the affidavit states, Delker admitted killing Samantha and said she lied about the woman in the blue minivan.
The affidavit says one witness saw a woman pull something from under a car and put it in the back seat Friday morning. He thought it was a dog or an animal.
Another witness said she saw a woman in a dark car near the church. There was a young girl outside the car, wearing high-heeled shoes and skipping.
The girl's father, who lives in Warren, is not named as a suspect in the affidavit.
Police station: Samantha was killed a few hundred feet from the Weathersfield police station, off Prospect Street. Some Prospect Street residents said being near the station gives them a feeling of security. They noted that few crimes occur in the area.
"The police station's right behind me; we always feel pretty safe here," Janine Ragan said.
Robert Horsley added, "We're really, really quiet." Horsley, however, also said he has noticed that people often speed down a large hill on Prospect Street toward state Route 46.
A sign covered with rust at the top of the hill reads, "slow -- children playing."
hill@vindy.com