Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Salem man, 29, killed by train; police investigate
SALEM — Police are trying to determine how a 29-year-old man was hit by a train and lost his life over the weekend.
Richard Farkas of Hawley Avenue was struck and killed by a passing train shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday on a set of railroad tracks near Pennsylvania Avenue and the Cranmer Bridge overpass.
Police said the matter is still under investigation, but Farkas was walking with a group of people, several of whom witnessed the accident.
School committee
YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Board of Education Certificated Personnel Committee will meet at 5 p.m. today in the board room of the Irene L. Ward Building, 20 W. Wood St.
Grandmother stabbed
NEWTON FALLS — Crystal R. Goodrich, 29, of Leavittsburg, has been taken into custody and charged with kidnapping and attempted aggravated murder after allegedly stabbing her 81-year-old grandmother at the grandmother’s Ridge Road apartment.
Newton Falls police were called to the victim’s apartment around 12:15 p.m. Monday.
Police Chief John M. Kuivila said the victim was taken to the emergency room at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital. A hospital representative said no information about the victim could be released as of Monday night.
The suspect will be arraigned today in Newton Falls Municipal Court, Kuivila said.
New Middletown man faces additional charges
NEW SPRINGFIELD — A New Middletown man, already in the Columbiana County Jail, has now been charged with other crimes.
Jason Mace, 20, of Rapp Road, was charged last week with felony burglary and misdemeanor counts of criminal damaging and falsification, said Detective Michael Tablack. Mace is accused of breaking into the East Middletown Road home of his 85-year-old grandfather April 25 and taking a flat-screen television. Mace’s grandfather was out of town, the detective said.
The criminal damaging charge stems from a window Mace is accused of breaking at the house.
Mace accompanied his father when the crime was reported to police and gave a statement that he knew nothing about the burglary, Tablack said. That resulted in the falsification charge. Mace’s father wasn’t involved in the crime.
An informant and evidence led police to Mace. He’s accused of selling the television to a suspected drug dealer.
Mace is in jail on a 2007 breaking-and-entering charge in that county.