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Bench warrant issued for murder suspect
The defendant repeatedly unplugged his house arrest monitor, an agency said.
YOUNGSTOWN — At the prosecutor’s request, Judge James C. Evans has revoked the $100,000 bond of murder suspect Reshaud Biggs and issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
A hearing concerning his bond will be scheduled as soon as Biggs is arrested.
Biggs, 22, of East Florida Avenue, is charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder and abduction with firearm specifications and being a felon with a gun.
He is accused in the Dec. 30, 2006, matter, in which Anthony Perez, 31, of Plazaview Court, was fatally shot, and gunfire was directed at his brother, William Burr, 27, of Struthers, as Perez and Burr detailed a car on Clearmount Drive on the city’s South Side.
Police have said the shooting stemmed from an argument over the alleged theft of a car. None of the bullets fired that night hit Burr.
Martin P. Desmond, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, asked the judge to revoke Biggs’ bond because a monitoring agency reported Biggs violated his house arrest during at least three nights between Aug. 9 and Thursday by disconnecting his power and phone lines for seven to nine hours at a time without the judge’s permission.
The monitoring agency, Mid-American Court Services of Liberty Township, asked in a letter to the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge that Biggs’ electronically monitored house arrest be terminated because of the violations.
Saying the agency previously had warned Biggs against tampering with the equipment, Phil Sekola, Mid-American’s director, called Biggs’ explanation that his girlfriend unplugged it to go on the Internet a “lame story.”
Due to the same complaints of EMHA violations, Judge Evans ordered Biggs’ brother and co-defendant, Darrin D. Davis, 18, of East Florida Avenue, jailed without bond in August 2007.
Davis, who was bound over from juvenile court for trial as an adult, faces the same charges as Biggs, except that Davis does not face the charge of being a felon with a gun.
Burr, who was to testify in court concerning Perez’s death, was fatally shot July 8, 2007, outside a South Avenue pizza shop. Burr’s widow said she believes her husband was killed because of his ability to identify those involved in the slaying of Perez.
Dion D. Weatherspoon, 20, of Hilton Avenue, is charged with aggravated murder in Burr’s death, and Johnathan A. Dent, 17, of Lucius Avenue, is charged with complicity to murder in that case.
milliken@vindy.com