Middlefield man sentenced for rapes of juvenile girl

Middlefield man sentenced for rapes of juvenile girl

WARREN — A Middlefield man will spend 15 years in prison after being convicted on six charges of rape involving a female under age 18 between 2001 and 2007.

Alfred H. Christner Jr., 37, of Donley Road, received that sentence Monday from Judge Peter Kontos in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Diane Barber, an assistant county prosecutor, would not say anything about Christner’s relationship to the girl to avoid identifying her. The rapes occurred in McDonald and the Bloomfield area, Barber said.

5 teens arrested at church

LIBERTY — Police have arrested five teens on charges related to trespassing at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tibbetts-Wick Road and smoking marijuana on the roof of the building Sunday.

Police also believe some of the juveniles, who are all between age 15 and 17 and from Canfield, Youngstown and Hubbard, may be involved in vandalism at the church late last week.

According to police reports, officers saw a car in the church parking lot and found the teens on the roof. Police later discovered the marijuana.

Reports say officers, after talking to the teens, determined the connection to a Friday vandalism where handicapped-parking signs were destroyed and the words “why so serious? HaHaHa” along with a clownish character were spray-painted on the wall.

The teens were released to their parents.

Felonious-assault charge

LIBERTY — A 28-year-old township man is due back in Girard Municipal Court on Wednesday after police say he repeatedly rammed his girlfriend’s car with another car in a fit of rage.

Tuwayne Jett, of Logangate Road, is charged with felonious assault and domestic violence in the Friday evening episode. He pleaded innocent and is free on $55,000 bond.

According to police reports, Jett became angry and rammed the rear of the car of his 22-year-old girlfriend. Reports say he continued ramming the car until a patrol officer noticed the activity and pulled him over. The woman was reportedly trying to call 911 when the officer spotted the activity.

Reports say the vehicles, both registered to the woman, sustained heavy damage.

Man charged with rape

BOARDMAN — A Chicago man has been charged with rape, accused of assaulting a woman in a car on the way from a wedding to a hotel.

Thomas Frye, 27, was lodged in the Mahoning County jail.

A 26-year-old woman told police that she was getting a ride from a Liberty country club with Frye and another man to a South Avenue hotel about 1 a.m. Sunday. All three people had been at a wedding reception at the country club.

The woman said that when they neared the hotel, Frye sexually assaulted her with his hand.

When they arrived at the hotel, the victim asked the clerk to call her husband, but the clerk couldn’t reach him. Frye was arrested at the hotel.

Fires at 2 city houses

YOUNGSTOWN — City firefighters were called to two fires.

A fire captain suffered back pain late Sunday at a house fire at 485 W. Princeton Ave. on the South Side. He was carried out of the burning house by a firefighter, reports show. Capt. Alvin Ware, head of the arson bureau, said the pain was likely a muscle spasm. A battering ram was used at 10 p.m. to enter the empty structure that neighbors said has been used by a vagrant. Signs of drug activity were found in the living room. Fire damage was set at $5,000 and the cause is under investigation.

At 2:50 a.m. today, firefighters were sent to 85 E. Chalmers Ave., also on the South Side, and found the vacant house engulfed in flames. Damage was set at $15,000, a total loss, and the cause is under investigation.

Burglars remove AC unit

WARREN — Those who use window air conditioners on the ground floor of their home may be more prone to break-ins, as one northwest Warren resident discovered over the weekend.

Warren Detective Jeff Hoolihan said Monday that homeowners may be attracting a burglar by having one in a location where a thief could get to it. Such devices are typically not secured very well to a window frame, he noted, and can be “popped out” fairly easily, he said.

At about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Warren police were called to a home on Ward Street Northwest, where a man reported that when family members arrived at the home, they heard a back window being broken out and saw four males running from the property.

The burglars had apparently gotten into the home by removing an air conditioner from a side window, the police report says.