MAHONING COUNTY Youngstown man testifies about fight with sister

Jurors were to continue deliberating today.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mark E. Hubbard said that when he heard his angry sister rattling through a kitchen drawer during an argument, he knew he had to leave or fight.
He didn't have time to undo the four locks that secured the front door of their apartment, so he decided to fight.
When his sister, Cherilyn Chandler, came into the living room with a serrated knife, he grabbed her wrist and tried to wrest it away from her.
"I wasn't gentle," he said. "I put some force on it. I tried to twist her arm off."
The 36-year-old Youngstown man said that was the extent of his confrontation with Chandler. He denied ever punching or kicking her and said he didn't put the knife to her throat once he got it out of her hand.
Prosecutors say he did those things and caused his 65-year-old mother, Elinore Hubbard, to suffer a fatal heart attack in February. Hubbard is on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on charges of involuntary manslaughter and domestic violence.
Deliberations started
Jurors deliberated about one hour Thursday before being sent home for the night by Visiting Judge Charles J. Bannon. They were to resume deliberating today.
Hubbard testified in his own defense Thursday, telling jurors that he and his sister hadn't gotten along for years. He said Chandler was angry that he had moved into the Austintown apartment she shared with her mother and daughter.
Hubbard said he was staying at the apartment only until he could get himself checked into a drug rehabilitation center.
Hubbard said he grew tired of his sister's taunts, and he felt that she was lying to him when she said their mother wanted him out of the apartment.
When Chandler told Hubbard on Feb. 7 that she would call the police to remove him if he didn't leave the apartment on his own, he said he decided to get her back.
Defendant's plan
Hubbard said he told his sister that he would report her to authorities for driving illegally. He said his plan was to goad her into getting angry.
"That's when she got mad and she said, 'I'll fix you,'" Hubbard told jurors. He said that's when Chandler went to the kitchen and came back with the knife.
Assistant Prosecutor Robert Andrews has said Hubbard knocked his sister to the ground and pummeled her, but Hubbard denied that on the witness stand.
Elinore Hubbard had been released from a hospital one day earlier, with orders to rest and to avoid stress of physical activity. Prosecutors say the stress of trying to break up the fight between the siblings caused her to have the heart attack.