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Police arrest 2 people after home invasion, robbery in Youngstown
Police are looking for other suspects in the robbery.
YOUNGSTOWN — Police arrested two people after a home invasion that shook up a 17-year-old baby sitter and three younger children she was watching.
Antwan Woodbridge, 18, of East Auburndale Avenue, appeared Monday via video for arraignment before Judge Robert Douglas of Youngstown Municipal Court on charges of aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence and misdemeanor drug abuse marijuana.
Prosecutors told the court Woodbridge had one previous arrest for illegal possession of a firearm. The judge set bond at $75,000. Woodbridge is in Mahoning County jail.
Charese Grissett, 19, of Dogwood Lane, also appeared via video arraignment before Judge Douglas. She is charged with falsification.
Prosecutors told the court Grissett previously had been convicted twice for theft and has another theft arrest in Liberty Township. The judge placed her on electronically monitored house arrest.
The events leading up to the arrest of Woodbridge and Grissett began Sunday evening in the 300 block of East Auburndale, where a 17-year-old Emery Street girl was baby-sitting three children ranging from age 6 to 12.
The baby sitter told officers a man with whom she is familiar came to the house to speak with the children’s mother about a stolen car, but the woman was not home. The man, according to the baby sitter, unlocked the door as if to leave, but instead, let in two more men, one carrying a revolver.
The man carrying the gun grabbed the baby sitter by the neck and made her sit on a couch. He then pointed the gun at the smaller children and made them sit on the couch as well.
According to police, the men went through the home stealing various items while the gun was pointed at the baby sitter and children.
The thieves ultimately made off with two flat-screen televisions, a video-game system, two cell phones and a computer.
Police received a call from the children’s mother telling them her kids and a baby sitter had been held against their will. The baby sitter showed police the car the men used to come to the house. The white car was still sitting in front of the house when police arrived.
Police searched the area for the men and found a possible suspect. Officers took the baby sitter to identify the man, but he was not one of the men involved. When police arrived back at the house, Woodbridge was there. He told police he came because he heard there was a robbery in which he had been implicated.
According to police, the baby sitter told officers Woodbridge was one of the men involved in the robbery. Police placed Woodbridge under arrest, and, during a search before the arrest, found bullets in his pockets and a gun holster under the seat of the car in which he was riding.
Woodbridge also was charged with possession of marijuana because police say he slipped his handcuffs to the front while riding in the back of a police transport van and was found chewing on a substance with a large amount of suspected marijuana at his feet.
Later that night, police also followed a car to a home on East Lucius, where items from the robbery had been stored. When officers tried to pull the car over, a man in the back seat jumped out of the car and ran. Two women, one being Grissett, also were in the car. Grissett was arrested for giving officers a false name, police said.
Police recovered the items stolen from the house from the yard of the East Lucius Avenue home, where the car containing Grissett, the other woman and the man who escaped police capture had been stopped.
jgoodwin@vindy.com