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Trial begins in Belleria robbery
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Croom
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Shorter
YOUNGSTOWN
Opening statements and testimony got under way in the trial of two men charged with holding up a pizzeria at gunpoint, and one of the men later accused of attempting to silence a witness with murder.
Stanley Croom, 46, of Plazaview Court, and Jeff Shorter, 43, of Orange Avenue, are on trial before a jury of four men and eight women in the courtroom of Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Croom, who is defending himself, is charged with aggravated robbery, attempted murder and retaliation. Shorter, represented by Atty. Jeffrey Limbian, is charged only with aggravated robbery.
Jennifer M. Paris, assistant county prosecutor, told the panel of jurors that on Dec. 27, 2009, a man wearing a large winter coat walked into Belleria Pizzeria on Belmont Avenue, grabbed a female employee, pulled out a gun and demanded money. That man, she said, later was identified as Croom.
“You will see her and see how scared she still is. She will tell you how scared she was. He had this gun in her face,” Paris told jurors.
Paris said employees in the restaurant called police, and a customer at the drive-up window during the robbery watched the thief run from the building. The customer went to the Youngstown State University Police Department and reported the robbery with a complete description of the car, she said.
Police later found Croom and Shorter inside the car with clothes believed to have been used in the robbery.
Paris said Croom has been sitting in the county jail awaiting trial and decided it would be in his best interest to eliminate a witness who might testify against him.
“Mr. Croom is there and getting desperate, and what he does is try to hire someone to kill her,” Paris said.
Prosecutors contend that Croom offered a would-be hit man 3 pounds of marijuana to kill a key witness in the case. He also, prosecutors said, told the man where and when the witness worked.
Limbian acknowledges that there was a robbery at the pizzeria and that Croom and Shorter were arrested for the crime shortly after the robbery. Limbian, however, said finding his client guilty of the crime is a stretch.
“What happens after [the robbery] becomes a muddled mess of confusion, conjecture and speculation,” he said.
Limbian said police took things from the investigation that would help their case against Shorter and ignored those things that would hurt their investigation. He said even the car his client was arrested in does not exactly fit the description given by the witness.
“The fact is, my client is not complicit in the robbery or guilty of a robbery. The prosecution says ‘they’ robbed Belleria with a gun. ‘They’ did not rob anything. My client did not rob anyone,” he said. “Jeffrey Shorter was swept away in a tide of assumptions.”
Croom, who will be assisted by Atty. Anthony Meranto, chose to make his own opening statement to the jury.
Croom told jurors his biggest concern is that they be impartial in hearing the facts of the case. He said he has no plans to take the stand and testify.
Croom said there is one crucial piece of evidence that will clear him of all guilt in the robbery, but he was not specific as to what that evidence is. He told jurors that his only “flaw” is allowing “any and everyone” to use his car.
Croom is facing up to 26 years in prison if convicted. Shorter is facing up to 13 years in prison if convicted.