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3 plead guilty to robbing man in Austintown
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
Three men who pleaded guilty to an armed robbery in an Austintown apartment complex are facing six to 13 years in prison.
Brian A. Collins, 21, of Shields Road, Wilburn F. Jones, 20, of Staatz Drive, and Sylvestry E. Gibbs, 19, of Aldrich Road, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated robbery with a firearm specification.
They entered their pleas before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who will sentence them at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 1.
Rebecca L. Doherty, an assistant county prosecutor, dropped a charge of possessing criminal tools against all three men.
She also dropped a charge of improperly handling a gun in a motor vehicle that had been lodged against Collins and an unrelated breaking- and-entering charge against Jones.
The trio followed the 25-year-old victim from his job at a beverage drive-through to his door at Compass West apartments, Doherty said.
With Collins waiting in a car, Jones and Gibbs went to the victim’s second-floor apartment wearing hooded sweatshirts and ski masks in last October’s robbery, Doherty said.
One of the robbers held a gun to the victim’s head, and both threatened to kill the victim if he didn’t let them into his apartment, the victim told police.
The victim’s fianc e and her daughter were inside the apartment as the robbery was occurring, Doherty said.
After the victim gave them $50 from his pocket, the robbers ran outside, the victim told police.
When police stopped the get-away car shortly thereafter on Elmwood Avenue, Jones and Gibbs fled on foot, but Collins, who was driving, remained in the car and was arrested immediately, Doherty said.
“This was potentially something incredibly serious. They kept trying to get into the apartment. So, it wasn’t, in my opinion, just your run-of-the-mill aggravated robbery. This was something more,” Doherty said.