Lordstown man accused in break-ins in 2 counties

Lordstown man accused in break-ins in 2 counties

Staff report

RAVENNA

A Lordstown man is in the Portage County jail, charged with breaking and entering for one of two break-ins he’s accused of committing Thursday morning — one on each side of the Trumbull-Portage county line.

Thomas J. Montgomery, 29, of Malibu Drive, did not enter a plea Friday when he appeared in Ravenna Municipal Court on a breaking-and-entering charge. If convicted, he faces up to 12 months in jail.

That charge stems from a break-in on Newton Falls Road in Paris Township, Portage County, about 10:45 a.m., in which the homeowner fired a shot at the car of a man trying to break into his detached garage, flattening the vehicle’s tire.

After Portage County police issued a notice to be on alert for a maroon Buick Rendezvous with a shot-out tire, Newton Falls police found Montgomery behind a business on South Canal Street in Newton Falls, changing a tire on his maroon Rendezvous.

Deputies with the Trumbull County sheriff’s office also have charged Montgomery with breaking and entering at a vacant house on Newton Tomlinson Road in Newton Township earlier that morning.

About 8:30 a.m., a neighbor spotted a maroon Rendezvous leaving the Newton Township home where a break-in had occurred.

Montgomery will be arraigned in Newton Falls Municipal Court on that charge after he’s released from the Portage County jail.