Bond reduction worries city man

The suspect is already on five years’ parole and one year’s probation.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — Forrest Adams had peace of mind until the suspect in a violent home invasion had his bond slashed from $1 million to $25,000.

Records show Derrick J. Harmon, 28, of Eastway Drive, posted $25,000 bond Wednesday and was released from jail, where he’d been since June 16.

“I can’t bring my son here now,” Adams, 38, said Monday. “I don’t know if this guy’s going to come back.”

Adams’ teenage son lives with his mother in Akron and had planned on visiting this past weekend.

On June 11, the 13-year-old boy was visiting his father’s Belden Avenue home when a masked gunman in a bulletproof vest forced his way in.

The ordeal left Adams with knife wounds to his left hand and upper arm. It took 32 stitches to close the gaping wounds. The cuts came from a kitchen knife the intruder snatched after dropping his gun.

The intruder was cut with a decorative ax by Adams and also shot by Adams’ son.

Harmon, who first gave another man’s name in the hospital, was charged with the home invasion.

Bond reduction

On Aug. 17, charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and two counts of felonious assault were bound over from municipal court to a Mahoning County grand jury. Harmon, aka Harman, had waived his preliminary hearing and the case was transferred to common pleas court.

Upon a motion of an assistant prosecutor that day, Judge Robert P. Milich of municipal court amended Harmon’s bond from $1 million to $25,000, the clerk of court’s office said.

The judge ordered Harmon to stay away from Adams and his son.

The prosecutor could not be reached Monday, and the judge was not available.

Adams said he and his son had been subpoenaed to the preliminary hearing in case it went forward and they had to testify. He said they didn’t stick around after Harmon waived his right to the hearing and therefore didn’t know then that the bond had been amended.

Adams said he wasn’t notified by the prosecutor that the bond had been lowered. He learned from a relative late last week that Harmon was out of jail.

“I had peace of mind while he was locked up,” Adams said. “How [can] he get out when he’s on parole and probation? There’s a lot I don’t get about this. Now the whole community is in harm’s way with him out.”

Prior record

In October 1998, under the spelling of his surname as Harman, he pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to assault and three counts of aggravated robbery. Two of three firearm specifications were dismissed in a plea agreement, records show.

Harman was sentenced to three years in prison for the firearm specification and five years for the robbery convictions. He was incarcerated from Dec. 16, 1998, until Nov. 25, 2006, and then began five years’ parole.

In May, with the spelling of his surname as Harmon, he pleaded no contest to a theft charge in Boardman. He received one year’s probation in that case.

meade@vindy.com