Parole violation gets man 3 years

The man tested positive for alcohol and illegal drugs admitted to using drugs a third time.

STAFF report

WARREN — A 48-year-old former Warren man has been sent to prison for three years for violating the conditions of his probation by using drugs.

Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Charles H. Smith Jr., formerly of South Leavitt Road.

Judge Kontos had sentenced Smith to 11 months in the Trumbull County Jail in October 2007 for killing his brother, Carl, 28, at his family’s Kinsman Street Northwest home in April 2007.

The judge also ordered Smith to serve five years’ probation after serving his jail time. Terms of the probation required him to stay away from illegal drugs.

Greg Carroll, probation officer with the Trumbull County Department of Adult Probation, said Smith tested positive for cocaine Jan. 8 and admitted Feb. 2 to having used crack cocaine Jan. 1 and Jan. 2. He also failed to complete a drug and alcohol treatment program, Carroll said.

When Smith left the Trumbull County Jail he went to the Warren Family Mission where he underwent some drug and alcohol treatment, but he tested positive for alcohol after two weeks there, Carroll said.

David Toepfer, a former assistant prosecutor, said Smith fatally stabbed Carl, but there were no witnesses to the fight, so there was no way to prove family members’ suspicions that Charles attacked his younger brother without provocation.

Charles Smith also was injured in the fight.

Smith’s plea agreement called for him to undergo a four- to six- month treatment program at the Northeastern Ohio Community Alternative Program of Warren, but NEOCAP refused to accept Smith because he suffered from seizures, Carroll said.