METRO DIGEST || Change of speaker

Change of speaker

youngstown

Due to a scheduling conflict in Washington, U.S. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge of Cleveland will not be the featured speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Breakfast 8:30 a.m. Thursday, in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

Gwendolyn E. Boyd, national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., the nation’s largest black sorority, is now the featured speaker. Boyd, who earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Yale University, is the executive assistant to the chief of staff at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Awaiting verdict

YOUNGSTOWN

Having deliberated a total of 11 hours Thursday and Friday, a seven-woman, five-man jury in the aggravated murder trial of Tyrell A. Ravnell went home for the weekend late Friday afternoon and will resume deliberations at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Ravnell, 21, of Halleck Street, is charged in the June 20 shooting death of Christian Blackshear, 19, of Wirt Street, in the Kirwan Homes housing project in Campbell.

Just before 2 p.m. Friday, the jurors asked Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court: “What happens if we cannot come to an agreement?”

Judge Durkin returned the jurors to their deliberations after instructing them that they should not hesitate to re-examine their positions; they should consider it desirable that a verdict be reached; and they should not assume any future jury will be “more capable, impartial or intelligent” than they are.

Drug charges

YOUNGSTOWN

Police charged a 33-year-old Youngstown man with drug possession after officers found suspected crack cocaine in his buttocks during a traffic stop Thursday night.

Toye Larry of Hazelwood Avenue was pulled over by officers for not using his turn signal at Myrtle and Overland avenues on the South Side. When police patted him down for weapons, they found a hard lumpy object later identified as 12 grams of crack cocaine in his buttocks, according to police. He was taken to Mahoning County jail.

Housing meeting

YOUNGSTOWN

Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County is offering its once-a-year application period for its low-income housing program. A required orientation meeting for those interested is at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Victory Christian Center, 3899 McCartney Road.

Applications will be available at the orientation, which also will include information about the program and criteria for being accepted as a Habitat home owner. For more information about the home-ownership process, volunteering, and donating, call Habitat for Humanity at 330-743-7244.

Boy in custody

YOUNGSTOWN

A 13-year-old boy was taken into police custody after his 7-year-old brother reported he was raped Thursday afternoon. The 7-year-old boy was taken by ambulance from a Hudson Avenue home to St. Elizabeth Health Center, police said. Reports also stated that there was evidence of force.

Man beaten

WARREN

A 20-year-old Monroe Street Northeast man reported being hit over the head with a wooden night stand and beaten by one of two men who entered his apartment about 2:30 p.m. Thursday and took $20 from him. A second man held his wife at gunpoint. The male victim did not go to the hospital, police said.