Man pleads guilty

Man pleads guilty

CLEVELAND

One of the four Mahoning Valley men accused of staging a car accident at a Boardman business to collect insurance money pleaded guilty Tuesday for his role in the crime.

Thomas V. Franco pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in federal court. Court records show that Franco is accused of driving a truck into Mum’s The Word Florist in Boardman in January 2010 at the direction of the business’s owner James J. Landis.

Landis is accused of conspiring with Franco and Paul “Jeff” Amon and Joseph P. Amon, owners of M and J Properties Group Inc., a Canfield construction business, who did the repair work.

More than $90,000 in insurance money was collected because of the accident, records state. The case against Landis and the Amon brothers is ongoing. Franco will be sentenced at 10 a.m. Feb. 13.

Not-guilty plea

WARREN

Cody A. Beemer of Warren, accused of sexually assaulting his 9-month-old daughter during a visit with her at the Trumbull County Children Services office on Reeves Road, has pleaded not guilty to new charges.

Beemer, 23, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to the additional charges brought against him last week.

He and his wife, Felicia, 21, already face a possible life prison sentence if convicted, but the additional charges accuse them of pandering obscenity involving a minor and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

The more serious of the charges accuse each of the Beemers of possessing 532 photographs depicting minors “in a montage of obscenity and bestiality.” One definition of bestiality is sexual relations between a person and an animal.

Felicia Beemer will be arraigned on her new charges Dec. 14. Both Beemers have asked the court to determine whether they are competent to stand trial.

Student members

YOUNGSTOWN

The student members of the city’s board of education will attend today’s city council meeting.

The student members are Jena Ward of Chaney High School, Leon Robinson Jr. of Youngstown Early College and Patricia Sharp of East High School. The students will introduce themselves to city council at the beginning of the meeting, scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.

Blood drive set

Alliance

Alliance Community Hospital is having a blood drive today from 12:30 until 6.p.m. in Conference Room 1-A of the hospital.

The American Red Cross Northern Ohio Blood Services Region officials say there is an urgent need for blood in the region, which includes Alliance, because the Red Cross does not have enough blood and blood products to handle all of the needs of the hospitals it supplies.

Donors must be at least 17 (or 16 with parental consent), weigh no less than 110 pounds and have a photo ID available when donating.

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