Saturday, November 20, 2010
By John W. GOODWIN JR.
Youngstown
A city man given a three-week reprieve before he was to be sentenced on charges related to a home invasion and a sexual assault has vanished, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Lexter Williams, 29, of Kendis Circle, pleaded guilty to four counts of kidnapping, three counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, and one count of gross sexual imposition with gun specifications, and being a felon in illegal possession of with a gun.
Mahoning County prosecutors and Atty. Thomas Zena, representing Williams, agreed to 10-year concurrent sentences on all the charges as well as a three-year term for the gun charge, meaning Williams would spend 13 years behind bars.
Williams was due to be sentenced Monday by Judge Maureen Sweeney of common pleas court.
Williams had been in the county jail since his arrest in January 2009, but, as stipulated in his plea agreement, Williams was given three weeks at home on electronically monitored house arrest before he was to begin his prison sentence.
The agreement said that should Williams break the terms of his temporary release or commit another crime while awaiting his sentencing Nov. 22, he could face the maximum 86-year sentence.
A filing in the court Friday says Williams failed to report daily to the Community Corrections Association on Market Street as ordered, and he cannot be located by the electronic monitoring device that was attached to his body. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
A report to the court from CCA says Williams called the office to say he had no transportation to the office for his daily check-in Wednesday. Williams, according to the report, failed to check in Thursday, and the transmitter on his ankle indicated that it had been tampered with and may have been removed. The report says CCA confirmed Friday the electronic device had been removed, and Williams could not be found.
The charges against Williams stemmed from a Jan. 22, 2009, home invasion in the 100 block of Livingston Street on the city’s East Side.
Police accused Williams and three others of entering a home through an unlocked door, demanding money and sexually assaulting a female occupant at the home.
The three other people associated with the case have all pleaded guilty to felony charges. Two of them have been sentenced. The third man will be sentenced Jan. 4.