Man sentenced in killing linked to robbery

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Accomplices in a crime will be held accountable for the outcome, a judge said before sending a man to prison for 36 years to life for his complicit role in a drug deal and armed robbery that led to a homicide.

“When you engage in a common scheme or design with someone else to commit a crime, what happens as a result of that crime is your responsibility,” Judge R. Scott Krichbaum told Larese Jones.

Judge Krichbaum, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, on Tuesday imposed the sentence on Jones, who was convicted on all counts by a jury last week in the Feb. 22 death of Richard Helms. Helms was fatally shot in the head by the intended robbery victim, David Klamer Jr., 47, in Klamer’s Randolph Street residence.

Police said Jones, 30, of Wampum Drive, told them he drove Helms, 43, of Himrod Avenue, to Klamer’s residence, knowing that Helms planned to sell OxyContin to Klamer and then rob Klamer.

Klamer, who was also charged in the homicide, told police he shot Helms during the robbery. Having threatened to harm himself after the shooting, Klamer was coaxed out of his house by a hostage negotiator in a one-hour standoff after police surrounded his house.

The jury found Jones guilty of murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated drug trafficking and involuntary manslaughter and of the gun specifications attached to the robbery, murder and manslaughter charges.

Helms’ mother, Norma Ford, asked the judge to impose as much prison time on Jones as possible. “It’s not going to bring my son back, but it will keep him from getting someone else’s son hurt or killed,” she said. “He has to face the consequences.”

“I do have remorse, your honor,” Jones told the judge. Jones said that he grieves daily for Helms, whom he described as his “best friend,” and that he feels sorry for the grief Helms’ family is going through.

Klamer was charged with murder and aggravated drug trafficking, but a psychiatric evaluation found him incompetent to stand trial, and Judge Krichbaum sent him to North Coast Behavioral Health Care Systems in Cleveland for treatment designed to restore him to competency.

Because Klamer’s case is still pending, Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor, declined to discuss the legal reasoning for the murder charge lodged against Klamer. The murder charge says Klamer purposely caused Helms’ death.