2 plead guilty to robbing drivers

YOUNGSTOWN — Two young men pleaded guilty as charged to robberies of pizza delivery drivers at two locations on Woodhurst Drive in Austintown last November.

Marc A. Haney, 20, of Kerrybrook Drive, Austintown, and Matthew J. Serra, 22, of Clifton Drive, Boardman, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery today before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Both men will be sentenced April 30, Haney at 8:30 a.m., Serra at 9 a.m.

J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor, recommended each man be imprisoned for three years for each robbery, to be served consecutively. That means Serra, who wielded a knife, would serve six years.

But, Thompson said, Haney also would have to serve a mandatory consecutive three years because he wielded a handgun in the second robbery, giving him a total of nine years in prison.

The first driver was robbed of $130 after being called to an empty townhouse Nov. 11.

In the second robbery, which occurred Nov. 25, township police Officer Justin Coulter, who was conducting surveillance in the area, saw Haney and Serra leave their hiding place in the bushes and confront another driver. Police cut the robbers off and ordered them to drop their weapons.

Neither victim was injured.