Jury acquits man of armed robbery

The defendant faced a 10-year prison sentence.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — A city man accused of committing an armed robbery on a Warren man in a Westlake Terrace apartment in May was found innocent.

The verdict came several hours after testimony was presented that a defense attorney hoped would show that his client’s house-arrest ankle bracelet proved he could not have committed the crime.

LaMar McKinney, 19, who lists a Griffith Street address, was found innocent Wednesday after a two-day trial in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Defense attorney David Engler called Jessica Brown, a house-arrest officer who works for Community Corrections Association on Market Street in Youngstown, to explain the monitoring done on McKinney at the time of the crime.

Brown testified her records show McKinney stayed within a 75-foot radius of his apartment, which was a short distance from the location of the alleged robbery, between 6 p.m. and 7:24 p.m. The time of the robbery was about 7 p.m.

Under cross-examination by J. Michael Thompson, an assistant county prosecutor, Brown said CCA does not verify the location where an offender’s house arrest takes place.

“You have no way of knowing where that [monitoring equipment] was on May 21?” Thompson asked.

“Right,” Brown answered.

Brown also testified that whatever the location of McKinney’s house arrest, it apparently had not changed since May 3.

That’s because the monitoring equipment had not been disconnected from the telephone line or power source since May 3, she said.

The monitoring equipment is associated with a phone number, but nothing in the equipment identifies its location, she said. CCA relies on the offender to provide the address, Brown said, adding that she had never been to McKinney’s apartment.

Acquittal

The jury of eight men and four women acquitted McKinney of aggravated robbery after deliberating about three hours. If convicted, McKinney could have gone to prison for up to 10 years.

McKinney remains in Mahoning County Jail, awaiting transfer to a state prison on an earlier conviction. He was sentenced to six months in prison Aug. 31 on a cocaine-possession charge.

During the trial, John Canty Jr. of Warren told police McKinney put a gun to his face and demanded money from him May 21 while Canty and his wife were visiting his wife’s uncle, Richard Dowdy, in Apartment 45 on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

But Arielle Brown, 25, also of Westlake Terrace, the mother of one of McKinney’s children, testified that she had used a tape measure to determine that McKinney’s residence — Apartment 109 — was at least 129 feet away from Dowdy’s apartment.

She also testified to seeing McKinney at various points during the day May 21 at Apartment 109.

runyan@vindy.com