Extradition of fugitives hinges on the crime

Weighing costs on the Scales of Justice

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Picture the Scales of Justice statue peeking over her blindfold to see if she can afford the cost of bringing a fugitive back to town.

Limited funds means the cost to transport fugitives from distant places has to be weighed against the crime charged, said Nicholas Modarelli, chief assistant in the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office who also oversees extraditions. Extradition, he said, is done on a case-by-case basis.

Last year, the prosecutor’s office paid $12,956 to bring back eight fugitives who had left the state, records show. Three were in Florida and one each in Utah, Louisianna, Tennesee, Alabama and Arizona.

Modarelli said that if a fugitive is located a one-day drive away, two deputies drive to get him or her, spend the night in a hotel and return the next day. For longer trips, two deputies fly out, rent a car, spend the night and fly back the next day with the fugitive.

Warrants generally show up for those who flee when they come in contact with law enforcement in their new surroundings, such as a routine traffic stop. Sometimes, snitches give local detectives a fugitive’s whereabouts.

The pickup radius on a warrant tells law enforcement whether the fugitive they come across should be held for extradition. The National Crime Information Center computer lets law enforcement in all states search a variety of information that includes people wanted on warrants, missing persons, stolen guns and cars and so forth.

States have their own computer systems that link to the NCIC computer, said Mahoning County Sheriff’s Maj. James M. Lewandowski. He said warrants in NCIC have a separate field that lists radius limitations such as county, adjacent states or east of the Mississippi, for example, depending on what the local arresting agency wants to do.

As an example, Andre K. Bailey, 24, of Tyrell Street was arrested this month by Youngstown police and charged with driving under suspension and loud music from a motor vehicle and was also served with a warrant issued in Liberty for traffic violations. He was also wanted on a warrant out of Georgia, but the local arrest report states “out of pickup radius,” meaning Georgia, which wants Bailey for violating a controlled-substances act, won’t pay to transport him back there.

Lewandowski said the sheriff’s department is the repository for warrants generated by the common pleas and the four county courts. He said deputies average 60 warrant pickups each month, some from as close as Trumbull County.

“We fetch people from all over the state all the time,” he said.

Youngstown Prosecutor Jay Macejko said there is generally a lot of discretion with pickup radius when a warrant is entered into the NCIC computer. He said cost is a concern, and those accused of lower-level felonies are less likely to be brought back from far away because of the expense.

“Murder, rape, aggravated robbery, child sex — we would definitely want them back,” he said.

It’s been nearly nine years since Yanique Robinson disappeared from a Youngstown municipal courtroom. Even if found, the 34-year-old fugitive won’t be brought back to town because the pickup radius on his felony escape warrant is Ohio only. A recent check by U.S. marshals shows he’s lived in Atlanta, Ga., and Albany, N.Y.

The day Robinson ran, May 3, 2000, he had been sentenced to 30 days’ electronically monitored house arrest with work privileges, and a hearing was set the next month for his unpaid fines. When the bailiff went to escort Robinson to the probation department to sign up for house arrest, he realized the man had bolted.

There are no hard and steady rules for bringing back those who abscond, said Chris Becker, chief trial counsel of the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office. It’s always on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Becker said a lot of variables have to be considered when deciding whether to bring back a fugitive, regardless if it’s a felony or misdemeanor crime. How old is the case? Are the witnesses still around? Will he go to jail or prison?

If the fugitive faces a new charge in another jurisdiction, the charge and any attendant jail or prison time must be resolved before he is eligible for extradition, he said.

Trumbull deputies generally handle prisoner transports in Ohio and neighboring states, Becker said. For long-distance hauls, Trumbull County sometimes uses Prisoner Transport Services, a private airline.

Trumbull County used the airline recently to bring Ronald Stahlman, wanted in a 1979 Warren murder, back from Arizona, Becker said. The cost was roughly $2,400.

Struthers Police Chief Robert Norris said the radius for misdemeanor warrants from Struthers court is Mahoning County, felonies expand to adjacent counties and serious felonies nationwide. The pickup radius, he said, is set by the agency that enters the warrant into the computer.

Norris said a Mahoning County pickup radius doesn’t mean that his officers won’t go elsewhere to pick up a fugitive.

“Let’s say a guy shows up in Hubbard, we’ll go get him,” the chief said. “If he gets stopped in Hubbard, Hubbard will call us. They confirm with us before they take him into custody.”

If a person has already been indicted on a felony in common pleas court, the responsibility for pickup falls to the sheriff, he said.

“Somewhere along the line, we have to make a cost assessment, whether it’s worth travel halfway across the country to get a guy who had a bag of marijuana in his pocket,” Norris said. “Better to have him in Georgia and out of our hair.”