Buyers of goods stolen by theft ring convicted

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Bobby Mock

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David Thistlewaite

By Ed Runyan

One of the men convicted Tuesday was selling stolen goods to fellow GM employees at the plant.

YOUNGSTOWN — Two of the people who bought stolen goods from a Mahoning Valley theft ring were convicted Tuesday of receiving stolen property.

David Thistlewaite, 36, of Arthur Street in Canfield, was convicted Tuesday of 10 counts of receiving stolen property in a two-day trial heard by Judge Thomas P. Curran of Cuyahoga County, a visiting judge handling all the theft-ring cases in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The case was heard by the judge without a jury.

Co-conspirators Bobbie J. Mock, 39, of Canfield Road, Austintown, and Gennaro Bellard, 42, of Roosevelt Drive, Youngstown, testified that Thistlewaite bought six motorcycles and four 4-wheelers stolen Jan. 10, 2006, from Gollan’s Honda on Market Street in Youngstown.

Mock said Thistlewaite paid $4,000 for the vehicles and helped the thieves unload them into the back of his business, Bernard’s Auto Parts on Steel Street in Youngstown, later that night.

Thistlewaite could get up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine on each count.

Another of the 15 people named in the theft ring, Timothy Marino, 42, of Ridge Road in Cortland, appeared before Judge Curran on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to nine counts of receiving stolen property for buying items such as trailers and all-terrain vehicles that the theft ring stole from locations such as Blake’s Mini Storage and North Coast Energy.

Marino is one of three GM Lordstown workers who took orders from fellow GM employees for items they wanted to buy and relayed the information to the thieves in the operation, said Jeff Hoolihan, a Warren police detective.

He said arrangements for some of the deals were made under the GM sign at the assembly plant.

Hoolihan was part of the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, which consisted of 28 Mahoning Valley investigators who worked over two years to bring charges against 15 people who committed about 125 break-ins across Trumbull and Mahoning counties and three other men who committed about 24 break-ins across Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

Kasey Shidel, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, recommended to Judge Curran that Marino get two years in prison.

Marino could also get probation after just 90 days in prison or receive only probation.

Judge Curran will sentence Marino and Thistlewaite at 10 a.m. Feb. 3 after the Mahoning County Adult Parole Authority conducts a presentence investigation on each.

runyan@vindy.com