Car chase leads police to man accused of felony

He has no license and was supposed to have been on house arrest since July.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 19-year-old man with a felony gun case pending and no valid driver's license jumped out of a reportedly stolen Pontiac, leaped over a fence and hid in weeds in an attempt to avoid capture, police said.
Lamar Armstrong of McGuffey Road was arraigned Thursday in municipal court on charges of failure to comply with a police order, obstruction of justice, reckless operation and no driver's license. Police said Armstrong never had a valid driver's license. Bond was set at $7,000 and a pretrial for Nov. 30.
Although Armstrong was arrested on a charge of receiving stolen property, the car, that charge was not filed.
Police spotted Armstrong driving the Pontiac near Arlington Avenue on the North Side Wednesday evening and attempted to stop him. The driver took off at a high rate of speed and headed toward Dearborn Street, finally stopping at the corner of Stansbury Drive and Sloan Street, where he jumped out, police said.
Police said Armstrong vaulted a fence and ended up in a baseball field, where he hid in weeds. When caught, he told police that he had borrowed the car from a man he knows but didn't give the man's name.
The vehicle was released to the owner at the scene.
Gun charge
On July 16, Armstrong was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, and bond was set at $25,000 in municipal court, with the provision he be placed on electronically monitored house arrest at his own expense if released from jail. The jail, because of overcrowding, released Armstrong on July 19, but he wasn't placed on house arrest.
Warden Alki Santamas said Thursday that when an inmate is given an emergency release, the jail notifies the municipal court probation department, which is responsible for setting up house arrest. Santamas said Armstrong was told by jail staff to report to the probation department.
Dan Panigall, head of the municipal court probation department, said he had no record that Armstrong showed up.
Panigall said he would investigate to see what happened, adding the jail doesn't always let his department know when it releases inmates who are supposed to be placed on house arrest.
Panigall acknowledged that it's not a good system.
After indictment on the weapon charge at the end of August, Armstrong was arraigned in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and the bond condition -- house arrest -- was again noted on the journal entry by Judge Maureen Sweeney, records show.
The gun case is assigned to common pleas Judge James C. Evans, who said Thursday that he will find out why, after two judges ordered house arrest, Armstrong was out riding around.
The judge said the new charges could also be the basis for revoking Armstrong's bond.