Austintown man flees mental institution

The highway patrol issued an all-points bulletin for the escapee.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Vincent Roberts, 36, who three years ago in a rage severely beat his mother with a dining room chair, escaped Friday from Heartland Behavioral Healthcare Center in Massillon.

Roberts’ attorney at the time of his trial said Roberts believed his mother was a robot — because when he hit “the thing,” oil came out.

Charged with attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated burglary and attempted aggravated burglary, the Austintown man was found innocent by reason of insanity by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on May 18, 2005.

Roberts was sent to the Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare System’s Northfield Campus in Cleveland where he was to be kept 10 years. A doctor at Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio determined that, among other things, Roberts suffered from schizophrenia and unspecified personality disorders.

Roberts had been at Heartland Behavioral in Massillon since last month. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Roberts was outside “on privileges” about 5 p.m. Friday when he ran away in an easterly direction toward Perry Township.

Roberts, who as of 9 p.m. had not been seen since his escape, was wearing a white tank top and black and white shorts. He is about 5 feet 11 inches tall, has black, curly moplike hair, brown eyes and a mustache, the patrol said.

All-points bulletin

The highway patrol issued an all-points bulletin on Roberts and advised law enforcement officers to use caution when approaching him. The patrol asked that anyone with information about Roberts’ whereabouts call the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canton Post at (330) 433-6200. .

Officials from Heartland, which provides inpatient care for acutely mentally ill adults from an 11-county area of northeastern Ohio, refused to comment.

Background

It was about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, 2004, when Roberts, then 33, broke through the locked door of the home of his mother, Rita Roberts, then 66, and beat her with the chair, according to police reports.

He then went to his father’s house and told his father that a counseling session that day with his mother had gone badly. During the session, a counselor at Turning Point Counseling Services in Youngstown had told Rita that she should not be living with her son. When the two returned home, she locked him out.

Roberts then rode his bicycle to the Youngstown State University area to see if he could stay with friends. When that was unsuccessful, he returned to his mother’s home and beat her, police said.

Austintown police said that they found Rita lying on the floor semiconscious and bleeding from a head wound and that she had numerous cuts and bruises on the rest of her body. She was in critical condition when transported taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center.

alcorn@vindy.com