YOUNGSTOWN Police seek escaped teenager in city man's slaying

There's a $1,000 reward for the teen, considered armed and dangerous.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;By PATRICIA MEADE & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When found, a 17-year-old city youth who escaped from Forum Health Northside Medical Center two months ago will be charged with killing Robert Smith during a car theft last week, police say.
The Youngstown Police Department Street Crimes Unit began "beating the bushes" Friday looking for Darrin L. Moore, whose last known address was on McGuffey Road, said Lt. Robin Lees, YPD spokesman.
"Once we put hands on him he'll be charged with the murder," Lees said. "We believe him to be the trigger man."
The killing
Smith, 29, of Eliot Lane, was killed Dec. 12 on North Garland Avenue on the city's East Side. Police believe he was shot when he interrupted those who stole his car from the parking lot of Club 541 on Garland.
His maroon Cadillac Catera was found a day later at the Salt Springs Road exit of Interstate 680. The car had been set on fire.
Lees said information developed by Detective Sgt. Jose Morales led to Moore and Damon Clark, 19, of Parkcliffe Avenue. Clark is charged with complicity to murder, complicity to aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property.
At arraignment Friday in municipal court, Clark's bond was set at $225,000. He will be back in court next Friday for a preliminary hearing.
Call with information
Anyone with information about Moore's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or 1 (866) 4WANTED, the U.S. Marshals Service Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. Lees said a $1,000 reward is being offered by the task force, which includes the YPD Street Crimes Unit.
Moore should be considered armed and dangerous, Lees said. The teenager is black, 5 foot 8 inches tall, weighs 152 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo on his lower right arm.
On Oct. 22, Moore, who was charged with gross sexual imposition and felonious assault in Boardman, escaped from the hospital, where he'd been taken by a juvenile court detention officer after complaining about leg pain, police said.
Moore had been an inmate at the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center since Sept. 9, when arrested after a police pursuit that traveled through the city's North Side and various parts of Trumbull County. He was in a car stolen earlier that day, Boardman Capt. Jack Nichols has said.
Moore also faces a charge of escape. After having a lightweight cast applied at Northside, Moore left the hospital with the detention officer and, as they approached the county vehicle, threw down his crutches and ran.
He has remained at large since then.
Previous charges
Vindicator files show that Moore and another boy, Robert Gibson, 17, of Francesca Avenue, were charged with accosting an 18-year-old Lisbon woman in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Mathews Road, Boardman, on Sept. 9.
The victim was fondled and robbed, then hit in the head with a gun and kicked when she wouldn't get back into her 2003 Dodge Neon, which was then stolen, Nichols has said. The car Moore and Gibson drove into the parking lot and left there was later reported stolen.
Gibson was arrested at his home Sept. 12.
The teenagers originally were arrested on charges of felony aggravated robbery, kidnapping, gross sexual imposition and assault, Nichols said.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;meade@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;