Friday, October 26, 2007
YOUNGSTOWN — A Struthers man has been indicted on charges stemming from a July 24 homicide and fire in a North Side six-plex.
The Mahoning County grand jury indicted Brian Gasior, 39, of Garfield Street, who is already jailed on an unrelated matter, on one count of murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of abuse of a corpse in the death of Stanley Makarski, 47, whose badly burned body was found in his second- floor apartment at 208 Broadway by emergency crews responding to a fire at that address.
The grand jury made its decision Thursday.
The murder charge carries a penalty of 15 years to life in prison. The aggravated arson count that alleges Gasior set the fire that threatened serious physical harm to the occupant of a downstairs apartment carries three to 10 years in prison.
A second aggravated arson count alleging the fire caused substantial harm to the building carries two to eight years in prison. The abuse of a corpse charge calls for six months to a year in prison.
Fire investigators initially speculated the blaze, which they termed suspicious, might have been set to cover up a homicide. The occupant of the downstairs apartment, who got out of the building safely, said she heard screaming and things being thrown around and smelled smoke.
The indictment did not provide details of how the crimes were committed or the motives for them.
In another case, the grand jury indicted Charles Jones, 42, of St. Andrews Drive, Canfield, on an attempted murder charge with a firearm specification and on a charge of improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation in a Sept. 2 incident in the 1200 block of Aberdeen Avenue.
Also indicted were two county jail inmates, Leo H. Kellish, 27, of First Street, Campbell, and Caleb J. West, 25, of Fountain Street, on charges of harassment by inmate in Oct. 6 and 8 incidents, respectively, in which they allegedly deliberately exposed two different sheriff’s deputies to their bodily substances. Jennifer M. Coyier, 22, of Burbank Avenue, was indicted on an escape charge pertaining to an incident while she was under detention Oct. 17.