Acquitted in abduction

January 9, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN — After deliberating less than one hour, a jury acquitted a Girard man of an abduction charge Thursday.

Dwight Owens Jr., 28, of Mohawk Drive, was acquitted of abducting a woman from her Newton Falls residence and driving her to an Austintown gasoline station, where she left the car, within a half-hour period on April 4, 2008.

Owens and the alleged victim had lived together occasionally over a six- to seven-year period, said Owens’ lawyer, Michael Kivlighan. The trial began Monday before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Missing mother found

YOUNGSTOWN — A 22-year-old new mother who had been missing from her South Side home about a month has been located in the borough of Queens, N.Y.

Amesha Lewis, of East Florida Avenue, was found Wednesday wandering in a park and taken in for medical evaluation, said Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives. When New York police ran her name through the National Crime Information Center computer, it showed that she had been reported missing.

Efforts will be made to reunite her with her live-in boyfriend and baby. The boyfriend reported Lewis missing Dec. 7. She had given birth three weeks before leaving home. She left home on foot, so how she got to New York is undetermined, Centorame said.

Fire symposium set

BOARDMAN — The Mahoning County Fire Chiefs Association will conduct its 11th fire symposium Sunday at Southwoods Executive Center Auditorium, DeBartolo Place. Fire departments from as far as 100 miles away will be sending personnel from Ohio and Pennsylvania.

This year’s speaker is Michael L. Smith, retired deputy fire chief of the District of Columbia Fire Department. Smith has provided training and exercise development to first responders and to a wide array of emergency management entities.

Novak to head board

EAST PALESTINE — Ron Novak will serve as board of education president and Judy Daubenmire as vice president for 2009. The school board also appointed Novak as the school’s district’s representative to the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center.

Underage-sale charge

YOUNGSTOWN — Members of the Vice Squad arrested Aleze Jamil at the Belmont Drive Thru and charged him with selling alcohol to an underage person. Jamil, 49, of Locust Drive, Boardman, was arraigned Thursday in municipal court. Police waited while a 19-year-old cooperating witness went through the drive-through at 1840 Belmont Ave. Wednesday evening and came out with a 22-ounce bottle of beer.

Behavioral problems

WARREN — Ashley Moore, the 12-year-old girl who witnessed the murder of her mother and two brothers in Youngstown in 2007 and showed up at the Warren Rescue Mission in September saying she was a 14-year-old boy, has been transferred to the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center for behavioral problems.

The girl has been in the care of Trumbull County Children’s Services Board since just after she appeared at the Rescue Mission. But on Wednesday, a CSB worker called Warren police, saying the girl had picked fights with other female residents and grabbed and pushed a CSB worker.