Woman arraigned in robbery of neighbor

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Cornersburg woman remains jailed under $150,000 bond after her video arraignment on a charge that she robbed an 84-year-old neighbor of $1,000 after hitting him on his head and left hand with his wooden cane in his apartment.

Belinda Kennedy, 38, of Flo-Lor Drive, was arraigned Wednesday before Judge Elizabeth Kobly of municipal court on the third-degree felony robbery charge. Kennedy faces a possible prison term of one to five years if she’s convicted.

Kennedy, who was arrested Tuesday on Pointview Avenue by the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.

The victim told police a woman, known to him only as Belinda, came to his Canfield Road apartment about 3 a.m. June 25 and asked him for money, at which time he gave her $30.

The woman knocked again at his apartment door 90 minutes later, asking to use the rest-room, and he admitted her, the victim told police. After she emerged from the restroom, he told police he refused her request for an additional $50.

The woman, later identified as Kennedy, became irate, grabbing the cane from the table and hitting the victim with it before grabbing a cloth bag containing $1,000 and fleeing, the victim told police.

Officers observed a large lump on the victim’s forehead and his bruised and cut left hand, but the man refused a police offer to call an ambulance, police said.