Austintown man charged in beating, choking of female friend

Staff report

Youngstown

An Austintown man has been indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury after he was accused in June of holding a woman against her will.

Robert J. Hillard, 27, of Westchester Drive, was indicted Thursday on charges of felonious assault and kidnapping.

The charges stem from a June 4 incident where Hillard was accused of pulling a 19-year-old female friend out of her car, forcing her into his Westchester apartment and locking the door, according to a police report.

Witnesses who were friends of Hillard and the victim told Austintown police they could hear the woman screaming from inside the apartment.

When police entered the apartment, they found Hillard and the victim in Hillard’s bed, the report said. Hillard was taken into custody and charged by township police after they observed injuries to the woman’s face.

The victim told police Hillard forced her to his apartment, where he beat her up. She said he jumped on her as she sat on the couch and began to choke her until she couldn’t breathe.

When she tried to fight him off he punched her in the face and slammed her head against a heating unit, according to the report. She said that when officers knocked on the apartment door he pushed her into his bedroom and onto the bed.

Hillard is currently in Mahoning County jail awaiting an arraignment hearing before a county common pleas court judge.