43
Elderly victim of robbery in city remains thankful
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
An 84-year-old man, who was hit on the head with his wooden cane and robbed of $1,000 in his apartment, said he is thankful he suffered only minor injuries as he struggled with the woman he identified as his attacker.
“I’m certainly glad that nothing occurred to me other than a few scratches and a bump on the head,” said James McBride of Canfield Road. “If I hadn’t wrestled this cane away from her, I don’t know what was in store for me then,” said McBride, who appeared in municipal court with the cane.
“When she knew I wrestled the cane from her, I think she was ready to leave with the money, and she went out that door so fast, I couldn’t even count the seconds,” he added.
McBride made his remarks in a Wednesday interview after his 38-year-old former neighbor, Belinda Kennedy, waived her preliminary hearing before Judge Elizabeth Kobly and agreed to be bound over to the Mahoning County grand jury on a robbery charge in the June 25 incident.
“I thought of her as a nice person who lived in the apartment [complex] like I did,” McBride said of Kennedy, whose last known address was on Flo-Lor Drive.
“Perhaps it was my fault. If I’d have known better, I’d have locked the money up,” McBride said.
“I certainly miss the money. It took me close to two years to even save up this money,” he added.
McBride told police a woman – later identified as Kennedy – came to his apartment about 3 a.m. and asked him for money, at which time he gave her $30.
“I had loaned her money. I didn’t give her money freely,” with the intention of having her keep it, McBride said of Kennedy.
The woman knocked again at his door 90 minutes later, asking to use the bathroom, and he admitted her, McBride told police. After she emerged, he refused her request for an additional $50, he told police.
Kennedy became irate, grabbing the cane from the table, and hitting McBride on his head and left hand with it, before grabbing a cloth bag containing the money and fleeing, McBride told police.
Police observed a large lump on McBride’s forehead and his bruised and cut left hand, but McBride refused a police offer to call an ambulance, police said.
If she’s convicted of the third-degree felony charge, Kennedy faces a possible one-to-five-year prison term.
McBride said after court that he wants restitution for his loss and wants Kennedy to serve at least three or four years in prison.
Kennedy remains jailed under a $150,000 bond, pending action by the grand jury.
Having worked in several Youngstown steel mills, McBride is a veteran with eight years of combined Army and Air Force service.
He participated in the post-World War II occupation of Japan and later was with the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.