Plea deal in arson case

Plea deal in arson case

LISBON — A Salem man has pleaded guilty to torching several cars in Salem. Robert J. Kastanek, 23, of North Madison Avenue, pleaded guilty to three counts of arson in a plea agreement, Columbiana County Prosecutor Robert Herron said Monday.

Kastanek was indicted for setting fire to four vehicles and a camper that would fit on a pickup truck on Dec. 20. The plea agreement covered the burning of three cars.

Herron said Kastanek is to be sentenced at 2:30 p.m. May 8.

Jacob Arkwright, 19, no address available, also was charged with five counts of arson for the same fires.

Authorities did not determine the value of the damaged cars and the camper. The charges say each vehicle and the camper were each valued at $500 or more.

Burglary arrest in Sharon

SHARON, Pa. — Police have arrested a man in connection with a burglary, robbery and auto theft in the city last week.

Brandon L. Elerby, 24, of Alderman Avenue was taken to the Mercer County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.

He is charged after a burglary in which a 73-year-old man woke in his bedroom at 11:16 p.m. April 1 to find an intruder shining a flashlight in his face.

The burglar took the victim’s wallet and minivan.

The van was found last week in Canton, Ohio, said Sharon Police Chief Michael Menster.

Menster said Elerby sold the van there for $1,600. He returned to the Shenango Valley on Friday, where he was questioned by detectives.

Menster said Elerby also is charged with theft by deception for an earlier encounter with the victim.

He had offered to do drywall work for the victim in August 2007. He took $1,200, but never performed the work, Menster said.

Women and racism talk

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. — Dr. Kathleen Blee, distinguished professor of sociology, women’s studies and history at the University of Pittsburgh, will speak on “The Women inside Organized Racism” at 4:15 p.m. Thursday in the Berlin Student Lounge of the McKelvey Campus Center at Westminster College. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Blee has written and edited numerous books, including Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement and Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s andhas spoken extensively on national, international and local television and radio programs on the topics of David Duke, the Ku Klux Klan, hate crimes and violence and organized racism.