ALLIANCE CRIME Man pleads guilty to burglary

The defendant grabbed a woman's purse after she answered the door.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An Alliance man pleaded guilty Monday to burglarizing the home of a family for which he once worked.
Frankie L. Stargen, 51, East Noble Street, will be sentenced Aug. 24 by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He faces one to five years in prison, or he could be placed on probation.
Stargen will remain in the county jail while a background check is done by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority.
Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Pochiro said Stargen stopped at a home on Stanley Road, Alliance, in August 2003 and asked to speak to the man who lived there. The man's wife answered the door and when she went to get her husband, Stargen grabbed her purse and ran.
Mahoning County
The victim's home is in Mahoning County, even though it has an Alliance address. Most of Alliance is in Stark County. The woman knew Stargen because he used to do yard work for her and her husband, Pochiro said.
Pochiro said a court-ordered mental evaluation deemed Stargen incompetent to stand trial in October 2003. Stargen was committed to a psychiatric hospital in December and was restored to competency earlier this year.
Defense attorney Edward Carson withdrew a previous plea of innocent by reason of insanity and said Stargen knew what he was doing by changing his plea to guilty.
bjackson@vindy.com