TRUMBULL COUNTY Grand jury to hear case of fork stabbing

The victim said he was stabbed with the fork about seven times.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- A Trumbull County grand jury will decide whether a 23-year-old Howland man convicted in a 1998 fatal car crash should be indicted on an unrelated felonious-assault charge.
Dan Gerin, acting municipal court judge, sent the case to the grand jury Wednesday.
Neilan, who did not comment during the brief hearing, is accused of using a fork to stab a fellow inmate June 10 at the Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program in Warren.
Artis Jones testified Wednesday Neilan stabbed him about seven times. He said he was treated at a Warren hospital but did not require stitches.
Jones said he was stabbed shortly after he gave Neilan a food tray. He said he did not say anything to provoke the attack and denied having any other problems with Neilan.
Jones is still in NEOCAP on a drug conviction, officials said. Neilan has been moved to the county jail.
NEOCAP is for nonviolent offenders.
In January, Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court ruled Neilan should not have to serve the remainder of the five-year prison sentence Stuard imposed Oct. 7, 1999.
Neilan was ordered to serve six months at NEOCAP before being placed on six months' house arrest.
When Judge Stuard released Neilan to the NEOCAP program, Neilan said he would try to be the "best possible inmate."
Neilan was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated vehicular homicide in 1998.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Neilan struck and killed Fred W. Wilkerson, who had gone out to get the mail Dec. 22 at his Stillwagon Road home in Howland.
Neilan, who was delivering food for a local restaurant, fled the scene, police said. He surrendered the next day.