Shooting victim critical

Shooting victim critical

YOUNGSTOWN — A McGuffey Road man shot three times at a Penn Avenue house Wednesday remained in critical condition Friday in St. Elizabeth Health Center. Terry Marlowe, 43, was hit once in the leg and twice in the back with bullets from a .22 caliber handgun, according to police. The man accused of shooting him, Kenneth D. Berch, 56, of Penn Avenue, was arraigned Thursday on a charge of felonious assault and returned to the Mahoning County Jail on $25,000 bond pending a municipal court preliminary hearing Thursday. Police said Berch admitted shooting Marlowe in Berch’s home after the two argued. Witnesses told police the two men fought over crack cocaine that Marlowe had and refused to share. Berch tried to hit Marlowe with a golf club and a machete before pulling out a gun and shooting him, witnesses told police.

2 arrested in robbery

YOUNGSTOWN — Two men suspected of robbing Courtney Vending on East Indianola Avenue on Friday morning were arrested, one within minutes of the crime.

Officers rushing to the scene around 8:40 a.m. were directed several blocks by witnesses to the 300 block of Marmion Avenue where they spotted the two suspects sitting in a car.

Both men jumped out and ran and officers caught Nathaniel Austin Jr., 19, of Cedar Lane in a nearby yard. He had two rolls of coins in his pocket and a black mask pulled down around his neck, police said. He was arrested on an aggravated robbery charge.

The second suspect, Delano Savage, 26, of East Auburndale Avenue was arrested later Friday and charged with aggravated robbery. Both men are expected to be arraigned Monday in municipal court.

Probation in drug case

LISBON — A Salem man was placed on probation for four years for selling OxyContin tablets, a narcotic painkiller, in downtown Salem.

Robert J. Valentine, 72, sold the tablets in March, April and May 2005 to confidential informants at the Salem Rec Center, East State Street.

Judge David Tobin of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Friday. Valentine had pleaded guilty earlier to three third-degree counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs. Two first-degree charges of aggravated trafficking in drugs for selling the same drug in the same period were dismissed as part of the plea bargain.

Man held in burglary

WARREN — A 40-year-old city man is being held without bond in Trumbull County Jail after police charged him with breaking into a former girlfriend’s house Friday morning.

Ezara Shine Jr. of Perkinswood Avenue Southeast pleaded innocent to aggravated burglary in Warren Municipal Court before Judge Terry F. Ivanchak.

Warren police said his former girlfriend, a 49-year-old Taylor Street Northwest woman, reported that Shine broke into her home through the front door about 1:20 a.m. and beat her up. She escaped from the home and called police from an Ohio Avenue location.

She received a severe cut and was taken to Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital. The hospital had no record of her, however.

Shine was arrested about 2:30 a.m. driving down Mahoning Avenue near Summit Street. He had blood on his pants and hands, and there was blood on the car’s steering wheel and interior, police said.

Repaving part of I-680

YOUNGSTOWN — Interstate 680 southbound between the state Route 711 connector and Midlothian Boulevard will have various nightly lane restrictions for resurfacing. The Ohio Department of Transportation said that these restrictions will occur from 7 p.m. through 6 a.m. and will begin Sunday and conclude the morning of Sept. 21.

Teen runner hits car

POLAND — A 17-year-old township boy was treated at St. Elizabeth Health Center after running into the side of a car. The boy, Aaron Lazusky, was running on Clingan Road, north of U.S. Route 224, shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday when he ran into the car. No citations were issued, police said.

Brothers get lost on hike

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — Two brothers got lost while hiking at McConnell’s Mill State Park. Pennsylvania State Police said Jonathan Hart, 23, of Slippery Rock, and his 12-year-old brother, who was not identified, became lost in the dark near Hell’s Hollow. Police and Slippery Rock Township volunteer firefighters searched from 11:50 p.m. Thursday to 3:10 a.m. Friday when the found the two unharmed.