Bond denied for man held in shooting of KFC manager

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Taran D. Helms, charged with robbing and shooting Joseph Kaluza, the KFC manager en route to making a bank deposit earlier this year, will remain jailed without bond, a judge has ruled.

However, Helms’ girlfriend, Hattie L. Gilbert, who is charged with driving her car in the staged crash that preceded the March 24 robbery, went from being held without bond to having a $150,000 bond set for her.

Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court made the rulings in a Monday hearing. If Gilbert makes bond, she’ll be under electronically monitored house arrest and is to have no contact with Kaluza or his family, the judge ruled.

Kaluza, 42, of Youngstown, is paralyzed from the neck down after being shot in the head and neck.

Kaluza, manager of the KFC on South Avenue, was southbound on South Avenue when a Saturn cut him off and caused a crash, which was captured by a Western Reserve Transit Authority bus surveillance camera, police said.

The gunman pushed Kaluza’s car a short distance into a Hilton Avenue driveway, demanded money and received the $300 bank deposit.

After police traced the Saturn to her and found it near her residence, Gilbert confessed being involved in the crash and named Helms as her accomplice, police said. Helms and Gilbert had observed Kaluza and planned the robbery, police said.

Helms, 22, of West Hylda Avenue, and Gilbert, 20, of East Judson Avenue, are both charged with attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and kidnapping with firearm specifications to all counts. Both face between six and 50 years in prison if convicted of all counts and specifications.

The trial of Helms and Gilbert is set to begin Sept. 8.

Helms’ lawyer, John B. Juhasz, said his client is a lifelong northeast Ohio resident with an auto mechanic’s training certificate and would have a place to reside locally if he is released.

Juhasz called for Helms’ bond to be set at $50,000 in the Kaluza case and $15,000 in a separate case in which Helms is charged with robbing a woman Dec. 23, 2007, in Boardman.

However, Kasey C. Shidel, assistant county prosecutor, called for a $1 million bond for Helms, saying Helms had no known employment and no reliable home address and likely lived out of Gilbert’s car around the time of the shooting.

Shidel also noted the seriousness of the charges Helms is facing, the “overwhelming” DNA evidence on items left at the shooting scene, and the issuance of bench warrants for Helms’ arrest for failure to appear in Boardman court in two traffic cases.

“Based on the violence of the crimes and his failure to appear at other hearings, I consider him to be a flight risk,” Judge Franken said before denying bond to Helms.

Saying his client was an employed lifelong community resident who would reside locally with her sister if she were freed, Gilbert’s lawyer, Martin E. Yavorcik, asked the judge to consider a $50,000 bond for his client.

Gilbert has no prior criminal history, was an honor student at Youngstown State University at the time of the shooting, and told police she never intended for Kaluza to be assaulted, Yavorcik said.

However, Shidel said Gilbert told police she was being evicted from her home and admitted planning the robbery. “The state does believe she’s a flight risk. ... It was her acts that led up, inevitably, to this aggravated robbery and attempted murder,” he said, asking the judge to consider a $500,000 bond for her.

In setting Gilbert’s bond, Judge Franken noted that it typically costs $150,000 to apprehend someone who flees while on bond.