YOUNGSTOWN Jury selection starts in trial

The woman was cut across her stomach when she refused to give up a box of money.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jury selection began Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for two men charged in the slashing and robbery of a Youngstown woman at a South Raccoon Road bank last summer.
Jacob DiCarlo, 22, of Ayrshire Drive, and Michael Kapsouris, 25, of South Raccoon Road, are each charged with felonious assault and aggravated robbery.
The victim, Debra Mitchell of Elbertus Avenue, told police she went to Key Bank at 1737 South Raccoon Road around 3 p.m. July 30, 2001, to deposit between $5,000 and $6,000 for her employer. She had the money in bags, which she carried in a cardboard box.
Mitchell was 39 at the time.
Hurt in attack
When she got out of her car, one of the suspects got out of a car next to hers and tried to grab the cardboard box, police said. The other suspect stayed in the car.
Mitchell wouldn't let go of the box, so the man pulled out a switchblade and slashed her in the stomach.
The man then grabbed the box and got back in the car, and the two fled.
Mitchell got back in her car and followed the men east on New Road to Edinburg Drive, police said. She also called 911 on her cell phone.
Mitchell told police she stopped following the men on Edinburg Drive when she first realized she had been slashed. Her wound was about 2 inches long, and she was hospitalized in stable condition immediately afterward.
Kapsouris' attorney, Mark Lavelle, had asked that the men be tried separately, but Judge Robert Lisotto denied the motion and ordered that they be tried together.
bjackson@vindy.com