Couple pleads innocent in son’s death

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A Minerva couple has pleaded innocent to charges they face in the death of their 2-year-old son, who accidentally killed himself by firing a handgun into his chest.

Douglas Foor, 25, and Amanda Saunier, 24, who were indicted April 9 on two counts of child endangering, entered their pleas in a Tuesday arraignment before Magistrate Timothy G. Welsh of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The Mahoning County grand jury also indicted Foor on one count of involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 13, 2008, death of their son, Jacob.

Foor and Saunier, who reside on Murray Avenue, are tentatively set for trial beginning June 22 before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, and have retained Atty. Tracey A. Laslo as their defense lawyer.

The handgun Jacob used belonged to Foor, a part-time Minerva police officer, but it was not his service firearm.

One child-endangering count pertains to Jacob, and the other to the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Hannah, who also was in the family’s mobile home at the time of the accident.

Foor and Saunier remain free on bond.