Cops: 2 owned up to real estate crimes

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Vivian Martin

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Grant Cooper

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Robert Brooks

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Paul Brooks

Staff report

WARREN

Two men charged with killing real-estate agent Vivian Martin admitted the crimes while being interviewed by police a day after the homicide, according to an affidavit filed by the Youngstown Police Department.

The affidavit, filed in support of a search warrant that sought to recover the contents of the safe-deposit box of suspect Robert S. Brooks, 25, of Youngs-town, says Brooks and Grant P. Cooper, 21, of Sulgate Drive, Brookfield, admitted strangling and robbing Martin on Sept. 20 in Youngstown.

The affidavit says the two men made the admissions Sept. 21 while being interviewed by police, including Youngstown Detective Sgt. John Patton.

Robert Brooks and Cooper are being held without bond in the Mahoning County jail.

They were arrested Sept. 21 by Brookfield police on unrelated charges, the affidavit says.

Cooper also admitted lighting a fire at the home after the attack, says the affidavit, filed by Patton.

Inside Brooks’ safe-deposit box at Huntington Bank in Hubbard, Youngstown police recovered two handguns, ammunition, a business planner, military papers, a small, black briefcase containing military papers and a knife in a camouflage case, court documents say.

Police have said Brooks, 25, also admitted being involved in the Boardman robbery of a 53-year-old female real-estate agent Sept. 15.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court granted the search warrant Friday, and police took the contents of the box into their possession the same day.

The affidavit says the real-estate agent robbed Sept. 15 told police she was held at gunpoint for about an hour at an apartment on Hillman Way in Boardman by two white men.

She said the men took a tan bag, black camera phone, blue scarf, 12 apartment keys, wicker purse and other items.

Police also went Sept. 21 to the home where Robert Brooks and his brother, Paul A. Brooks, 27, were living on Castalia Avenue in Youngstown and recovered a safe-deposit key in a Huntington Bank envelope, the affidavit says.

Two employees of the bank said Robert Brooks carried a backpack into the safe-deposit area about noon Sept. 21, the affidavit says.

At the time Patton sought the search warrant for the safe-deposit box Friday, no handgun had been recovered in connection with the Sept. 15 robbery, the affidavit says.

In addition to a gun, police believed the box might contain jewelry, watches and other valuables connected to the Sept. 15 robbery and Sept. 20 homicide.

Youngstown Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said that the guns taken from the safe-deposit box would be turned over to Boardman police.

Patton could not be reached Monday to determine whether any of the items found in the box appear to have come from the Sept. 15 or Sept. 20 crimes.

In addition to Robert Brooks, police also arrested his brother, Paul Brooks, in the Sept. 15 robbery.

They are both expected to appear in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman at 11 a.m. today.

They each are charged in this case with one count of aggravated robbery and one count of kidnapping.

Paul Brooks is in the Mahoning County jail, held without bond.