TRUMBULL COUNTY Ex-inmate pleads innocent in TCI case

The defendant tried to throw drugs over the fence, a prosecutor said.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Paul Leroy Brown didn't forget his friends on the inside.
Five months after being released from Trumbull Correctional Institution, Brown returned to the prison grounds last month in an attempt to give another inmate illegal drugs, prosecutors say.
The 46-year-old Warren man tried to throw cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana over the barbed-wire fence surrounding the prison, said Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.
Brown was secretly indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury Wednesday. He pleaded innocent Thursday and is being held in the county jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
He is scheduled to appear Tuesday in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan.
Previous time served
Brown, 46, of Warren, was released from prison in August after serving 13 years for receiving stolen property.
The charge was filed by Warren police as they investigated the Oct. 12, 1989, strangling death of Brown's cousin Rebecca Sims, 45, of Highland Avenue, Warren.
She was found on her couch, strangled with a telephone cord, and her ring was missing.
Brown was not charged with murder. He was convicted in February 1990 of possessing Sims' ring. Police said he tried to pawn the $892 ring at a local shop.
Brown also was imprisoned from February 1975 to until being paroled in July 1989 after he was convicted in the Dec. 12, 1974, shooting and robbery of Cleveland Beasley, 63, of Palmyra Road Southwest. He had been sentenced to 15 years to life.
sinkovich@vindy.com