North Jackson man acquitted on 2 of 3 counts of raping boy

YOUNGSTOWN — A 38-year-old North Jackson man has been acquitted on two counts of raping a young boy, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on another rape count.

Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court dismissed two other rape counts against Earl E. Johns Jr. because he said the prosecution didn’t sufficiently establish in the trial the time frame of those offenses.

The eight-woman, four-man jury returned its verdicts Thursday afternoon after 51⁄2 hours of deliberations at the end of a trial that began Tuesday.

Because the boy was under 10, each charge carried a sentence of 10 years to life in prison had a jury determined force was used. Had a jury convicted him without finding that force was used, each count carried a three- to 10-year prison term, explained Johns’ lawyer, Gary VanBrocklin.

Dawn Krueger, assistant county prosecutor, said her office plans to retry Johns on the count on which there was a hung jury “because we’re still confident in his guilt.”

Johns was returned to county jail, where he has been held since his June 2006 arrest.

The charges alleged Johns forced a male relative, who is now 9, to submit to oral sex in Johns’ Thomas Drive trailer residence in 2005 and 2006.