Fugitive wanted on rape warrant from Youngstown arrested in Pa.

Staff report

POLK, Pa.

A 39-year-old Youngstown man is lodged in Venango County Jail awaiting extradition to Ohio after U.S. Marshals arrested him Friday evening at a trailer here on a rape warrant from Youngstown police.

Apprehended about 11 p.m. Friday was Ronnie L. Helms of Himrod Avenue, who was verbally abusive but offered no physical resistance to his arrest, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Dean Michael.

The U.S. Marshal’s Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, of which Michael is the coordinator, was assisted in making the arrest by a fugitive unit from the U.S. Marshals Service in Erie, Pa., and by Oil City, Pa., police.

Helms is a registered sexual predator based on his conviction for the June 1993 kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old Youngstown girl at gunpoint.

Having been sentenced to five to 25 years in prison for those offenses, he was paroled in December 2006, and his Ohio Adult Parole Authority supervision runs until 2021.

He was jailed for six months in 2008 after a robbery charge was reduced to theft in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Michael said he did not know details concerning the new rape charge on which Helms was arrested Friday.