MORE TRIAL COVERAGE: Defendant in Kaluza case didn’t provide verifiable alibi

YOUNGSTOWN — In the six months since a KFC manager was shot during a robbery, did Taran D. Helms provide an alibi that police could verify

“No,” Detective Sgt. John Kelty said from the witness stand today in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Helms, 23, of West Hylda Avenue sat at the defense table taking notes on a yellow legal pad. Across the table sat his co-defendant, Hattie L. Gilbert, 20, of East Judson Avenue. She has admitted to detectives that she staked out KFC manager Joe Kaluza out for roughly two weeks before the robbery, saying she needed the money because she was being evicted by her sister.

Helms and Gilbert are accused in the attempted murder of Kaluza, who was shot and robbed of the restaurant’s $300 bank deposit the morning of March 24. Gilbert is accused of staging a car accident on South Avenue by pulling in front of Kaluza’s SUV. Helms is accused of then approaching and shooting the now-paralyzed man in the neck before taking the deposit money.

The trial began Monday. Judge Timothy E. Franken called a lunch recess at noon today.

Kelty, under questioning by Kasey Shidel, an assistant county prosecutor, testified that Helms claimed to be job hunting and staying at the house of a woman named “T” when the crime occurred.

Helms was unable to provide the woman’s last name or an address, other than the Hillman Street-Warren Avenue area, Kelty testified. The lead detective on the case said police would have checked out any information Helms could have provided to prove his whereabouts that morning.

Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert testified about the search for the shooting suspect. The search turned up a gun near a fence.

An Austintown police dog trained in tracking alerted on a discarded jacket in a rear yard on Auburndale Avenue. Police said tha jacket was Helms’.