Metro digest || Vienna man dies in fire

Guilty of child sex

WARREN — Harold Deraud, 75, of Elizabeth Street, Hubbard, has pleaded guilty to two counts of gross sexual imposition for having sexual contact with children age 8 and 10 between 2006 and 2008.

Deraud entered the plea Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Judge W. Wyatt McKay will sentence Deraud in four to six weeks, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a pre-sentence investigation.

Prosecutors agreed to drop four other counts of gross sexual imposition against Deraud in exchange for his guilty plea.

He could get up to 10 years in prison.

Vienna man dies in fire

VIENNA — A 54-year-old man died after a fire broke out at a house trailer Wednesday afternoon, said a spokesman from the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s office.

The Trumbull County 911 dispatch center said the fire was at 43 North Outer Drive. It began around 5:30 p.m.

The victim is not being identified, pending a coroner’s investigation, Shane Cartmill, spokesman for the fire marshal, said Wednesday night. The man died after being taken to St. Joseph Health Center in Warren, the dispatch center said.

Cartmill said the fire started in the kitchen, but no cause has been determined yet.

Meetings rescheduled

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district has rescheduled two public meetings to present a proposed five-year strategic plan to improve academics in the district.

Sessions will be at 9 a.m. Feb. 22 at Choffin Career & Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St., and at 6 p.m. Feb. 22 at Chaney High School, 731 S. Hazelwood Ave.

The district is looking for public suggestions on how to improve academic performance.

Money stolen at store

BOARDMAN — Thieves broke into a Market Street store, knocking over an automated- teller machine and taking money from inside.

An employee at Boardman Express Mart told police that he arrived to the store about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday to discover the store’s alarm system and phones weren’t working. The store had been secure at 6 p.m. Monday when it closed for the day.

The ATM from the front of the business was on its back, broken open, and a small safe that was broken into was nearby. The safe had been in an office the door and lock to which had been broken. An unspecified amount of cash had been taken.

Outside and inside wires had been cut, and someone got on the roof and cut wires for outside lighting and the audible alarm, a police report said.

An adjacent door to another business, Margie’s Golden Needle, was forced open, and a filing cabinet was open. Nothing appeared to be missing from that business.

4 more years in prison

COLUMBUS — John Whisonant, formerly of Niles Road, Howland, will stay in an Ohio prison for at least four more years for raping four children.

The Ohio Parole Board met Tuesday in Columbus for a parole hearing for Whisonant, 55, who has served 25 years of a 21- to 75-year prison term.

The board said Whisonant will be eligible for his next parole hearing in February 2014.

He was admitted to the Ohio prison system in 1985 after being convicted in Trumbull County of four counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition for acts committed against children age 9, 7, 6 and 5 in the fall of 1984 and in 1981. The offenses came to light in February 1985 when one of the children reported them to a teacher after watching a film at school on child molestation.

Trumbull GOP breakfast

WARREN — The Trumbull County Republican Party will have its monthly breakfast meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday at Mocha House Restaurant, 467 High St. N.E.

A buffet breakfast will be in the banquet room. Speakers will be potential candidates.