Charge of obstructing justice against witness is dismissed

Trial against Hattie Gilbert and Taran Helms

Gallery

Suspects found guilty in the March 24 robbery and shooting of KFC manager Joseph Kaluza

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — At the request of the prosecutor, a judge has dismissed an obstructing-justice charge against a prosecution witness in the trial of Taran D. Helms and Hattie L. Gilbert.

Helms and Gilbert were convicted of the March 24 robbery and shooting of KFC manager Joseph Kaluza.

On Monday, Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court dismissed the case against Ashlinn Sykes, 21, of Dogwood Lane.

Kasey C. Shidel, assistant county prosecutor, asked the judge to drop the charge against Sykes because of her cooperation and testimony in the trial of Helms and Gilbert.

Sykes was charged with obstructing justice because police said she misled them as to Helms’ whereabouts during their initial investigation of the crimes against Kaluza.

Helms, 22, of West Hylda Avenue, and Gilbert, 20, of East Judson Avenue, each received 50-year prison terms from Judge Timothy E. Franken for the attack that left Kaluza paralyzed from the neck down.

Sykes, who is Helms’ ex-fiancee, testified that she had breakfast with Helms on March 24 at a Boardman restaurant, where Helms told her he had to go get Gilbert because they “had things to do.”

That morning, Kaluza was southbound on South Avenue to make KFC’s bank deposit when a car driven by Gilbert cut him off and caused a staged crash, which was captured by a Western Reserve Transit Authority bus surveillance camera.

Helms shot Kaluza in the neck, pushed his car into a Hilton Avenue driveway, demanded money and received the $300 bank deposit.

Sykes said she learned what happened to Kaluza by reading a newspaper. She recalled being at KFC on South Avenue several times with Helms when his mother, Kimberly Helms, worked there.

Sykes testified that she was at Helms’ father’s house on March 28, the day Helms was arrested. Earlier that day, police had been to her East Side apartment, looking for Helms.