Robbers receive 7 years in prison

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Two defendants in an armed robbery at a South Side fast-food establishment and in a home burglary that followed have been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the prison time Wednesday on Curtis Hayes, of Clearmount Drive, and Anthony Boerio, of Lucius Avenue, both 18, after both men pleaded guilty as charged to aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary with a firearm specification.

Hayes and Boerio, who were both armed, robbed both drive-through and inside clerks at Burger King, 15 W. Midlothian Blvd., taking between $300 and $600 in cash last Nov. 9, said Rebecca Doherty, an assistant county prosecutor.

After robbing the eatery, the pair fled on foot, one of them firing a shot from a gun, and kicked in the back door of an occupied home, where they hid in the 400 block of Mistletoe Avenue, Doherty said.

A police dog tracked them to the residence, where the occupant, who had just arrived home, let police search the house for the robbers, said Jennifer McLaughlin, another assistant county prosecutor.

Police arrested Hayes and Boerio and recovered the loaded guns within minutes after the robbery, Doherty said. There were no injuries.

“The state will oppose any early release,” of Hayes and Boerio from prison, Doherty said. “This was an extremely dangerous situation. The people who were working at Burger King were put at grave risk,’’ she concluded.