Wooster man pleads guilty to five charges

Two people nearly lost consciousness during a struggle.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Dean Morrison, who helped tie up a 72-year-old Bazetta woman and hit her 51-year-old son in the head with a piece of metal several times last Halloween, mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to his victims as he left court Monday.

Morrison, 51, of Wooster, had just tearfully pleaded guilty to charges that could put him in prison for 46 years. He will be sentenced in about a month.

Morrison was to go on trial on five charges Monday in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, but that stopped with his plea. He pleaded guilty to two counts of felonious assault, one count each of aggravated burglary, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

“I’m somewhat relieved that there will be no trial,” said Helen Parks, now 73, just after the hearing. She and her son, Bruce Parks, now 52, said they are glad they won’t have to endure a trial.

“They had no right to come into my home,” she said.

Helen Parks said she will be a little more relieved after he is sentenced.

Bruce Parks said he just wishes the case had not taken so long to reach this point. “He was guilty as sin. He admitted to all this. It shouldn’t have lasted this long,” he said.

Morrison’s co-defendant, Daniel Rachel, 47, of Massillon, pleaded guilty to the same five charges as Morrison and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May.

Morrison, however, tried unsuccessfully to suppress the confession he gave police, so his case took longer.

Helen Parks suffered a broken foot in the afternoon break-in at her home on state Route 305 just south of Cortland. Bruce Parks said the injury probably occurred as Morrison and Rachel tackled the woman and tied her up with duct tape.

Bruce Parks came into the house to the sound of his mother’s voice: “Oh, God, please, Lord. Help me. Help me.”

Saying he “saw red,” Bruce Parks attacked one of the men with his pocket knife, stabbing him completely through his shoulder, then stabbed the other man two times.

Bruce Parks then began to choke Rachel with his hands, as Morrison hit him in the head four to five times with some type of pipe, Bruce Parks said.

Bruce Parks could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness, he said, and asked his mother for help, whereupon she hit Morrison in the neck with a broom, he said.

At about the same time, Rachel was losing consciousness, Bruce Parks said, and Morrison called out to Bruce Parks: “Truce. Truce.”

Bruce Parks released Rachel and the two left the home and fled in their car, only to be apprehended by Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers a short time later.

Bruce Parks required six staples to close the laceration on his head.

runyan@vindy.com