Parolee faces charges of rape

Charges in two similar cases are pending.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A 48-year-old Youngstown man on parole for less than four months is being held in the Mahoning County Jail on $2.5 million bail accused of raping and kidnapping two women.

Judge Robert Milich of Youngstown Municipal Court arraigned Anthony Carr on three counts of rape and two counts of kidnapping Friday.

Two sexual acts were committed on one woman, resulting in two of the rape charges, said Sue Ellis, an officer with the city police department’s family investigative services unit.

Carr’s preliminary hearing is set for June 25.

Also, two additional counts of kidnapping and a count each of rape and attempted rape are pending against Carr for similar incidents with two other women, Ellis said.

Charges on those two cases are being referred to the Mahoning County prosecutor “because he’s got enough charges now to keep him in jail,” Ellis said.

All of the cases are similar, she said.

Carr would initiate a conversation with a woman outside the former Salvation Army building, near the Western Reserve Transit Authority headquarters on the lower west side of Mahoning Avenue, and then force them inside the abandoned structure, Ellis said. He would then rape the women, she said.

In one of the cases with charges pending, the woman escaped from the building after being tied to a shelf, Ellis said. This occurred Feb. 12, 2005.

The three others happened recently: May 28, June 9 and Tuesday. Police charged Carr with rape and kidnapping for the May 28 and Tuesday incidents.

Arrested Thursday

Youngstown police with the assistance of the state Adult Parole Authority and the U.S. Marshals Office found Carr on the corner of Hudson and Boston avenues at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Police said Carr had a metal crack pipe in his right front pocket and charged him with possession of drug paraphernalia.

Carr was charged by police after officers received information about his identification and whereabouts, Ellis said.

Carr was convicted in 1979 of gross sexual imposition.

He was also convicted in 1991 of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. He had been paroled and sent back to prison three times for parole violations, said Dana Lantz, an assistant city prosecutor. Carr has been on parole this most recent time since Feb. 21, Ellis said.

During his Friday arraignment, Carr said he lived with his sister at her Glenwood Avenue home. But Lantz said Carr told police he was homeless.

The former Salvation Army building, which is wide-open with no windows, is owned by the WRTA. The authority wants to demolish the building but doesn’t have the money to do so.

James Ferraro, the WRTA’s executive director, couldn’t be reached Friday to comment.

skolnick@vindy.com