Hubbard Twp. man pleads to lesser charge

WARREN -- A 23-year-old Hubbard Township man charged with trying to hire a hit man has pleaded guilty to menacing, a misdemeanor.
The Trumbull County grand jury did not indict Raymond Dunn on Wednesday on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder. In exchange, Dunn pleaded guilty to the reduced charge before Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Dunn, of Elmwood Drive, was accused by Hubbard Township police of attempting to hire a hit man to kill a woman's estranged husband and her boyfriend.
Dunn had asked the woman out, but she refused him, police said. As it turned out, the man Dunn tried to hire during a meeting in the Town N Country Lounge in the township was working undercover for police.
Dunn's attorney, John Fowler of Warren, pointed out during a preliminary hearing in Girard Municipal Court that neither money nor a weapon Dunn said he wanted to be used exchanged hands.
Fowler also pointed out the would-be hit man and Dunn had become drinking buddies, suggesting Dunn was "just talking."