Man pleads guilty to drug charge

By Ed Runyan

The defendant was hospitalized with mental health issues.

YOUNGSTOWN — David Klamer Jr., the 49-year-old city man charged with aggravated drug trafficking and killing a drug dealer who had come to his house to rob him, has pleaded guilty to the drug offense.

In court Friday, Martin P. Desmond, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said the prosecutor’s office decided to drop the murder charge against Klamer because another man, Larese Jones, was convicted of the murder in a trial last October.

It has taken many months to proceed with Klamer’s case, Desmond explained, because Klamer was hospitalized with mental health issues for about a year.

He was ruled competent to stand trial in May, however, and was deemed sane Feb. 22, 2007, when the killing took place.

Police said Richard Helms, 43, of Himrod Avenue, and Jones, 30, of Wampum Drive, went to Klamer’s home to sell him OxyContin and rob him. Helms and Klamer drew handguns and fired at each other, police said.

Helms died of a gunshot to the head.

Jones confessed the robbery and was later convicted by a Mahoning County jury of murder by complicity, aggravated robbery, aggravated drug trafficking and involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison.

Desmond said Jones’ conviction suggested that a jury considered Jones to be responsible for Helms’ death and that Klamer was using self-defense.

He added that individuals within the prosecutor’s office were split on whether Klamer deserved to be punished for shooting Helms at the time it sought to indict him.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, who presided over Klamer’s hearing Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, said he never believed Klamer deserved to be charged for the shooting.

“You shot somebody who was there to rob you,” he said. “These are bad guys with guns, but you’re not lily white in all of this either.”

Judge Krichbaum said he would probably sentence Klamer to between two and three years in prison after the Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation.

runyan@vindy.com