Incarcerated accountant commits suicide

Paul A. Rendina cut his neck and arms with a razor.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Willoughby Hills accountant, who pleaded guilty about a week ago to 29 federal criminal counts, committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center private prison on Hubbard Road.
An NOCC corrections officer found Paul A. Rendina, 53, in his cell breathing at 5:26 a.m. Sunday. Rendina had cut himself with a razor on the left and right sides of his neck and on both arms, a Youngstown police report said.
Rendina was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m. Rendina had a deep laceration to the left side of his neck, the doctor told police.
The doctor also told police that Rendina was treated April 4 at St. Elizabeth for self-inflicted wounds to his arms.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons awarded a contract in December to Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, parent company of NOCC. The contract calls for the federal government to house federal prisoners classified as low security at the Hubbard Road facility.
Razors permitted
Reached at home late Sunday, Louise Chickering, CCA's spokeswoman, said the company's federal contract permits prisoners -- except those on suicide watch -- to have razors in their cells. Chickering said she had no information on Rendina's suicide or if he was on suicide watch.
Rendina pleaded guilty April 21 to 29 federal counts, and was to be sentenced July 12. He had been in the custody of the bureau of prisons since Dec. 15.
He faced sentencing on 13 counts of mail fraud, three counts of mailing threatening communications, three counts of tax evasion, four counts of willful failure to file tax returns, two counts of concealment of assets, and one count each of bank fraud, use of fire to commit mail fraud, bankruptcy fraud and false oath, according to the News-Herald newspaper of Lake County.
Also, several of his clients, many of them elderly, said Rendina bilked them out of more than $1 million on various real estate ventures and business schemes, the newspaper said.
Rendina's trial was set for May 16, but was canceled when he pleaded guilty April 21.
skolnick@vindy.com