METRO DIGEST || Mental tests ordered for suspect in puppy killings

• Mental tests ordered for suspect in puppy killings

YOUNGSTOWN

A homeless man charged with felony cruelty to animals in the killing of two puppies in late January will have a mental evaluation to determine his competency before going forward with any additional court hearings.

William Bednar, 55, appeared Friday before Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court for arraignment on the two felony cruelty charges and two misdemeanor drug-paraphernalia charges. Judge Kobly set bond at $25,000 on each of the felony charges and $5,000 on each of the misdemeanor charges, then ordered the mental evaluation before any more court hearings.

Bednar has two prior convictions for animal cruelty, one in 2000 and one last month.

• Killing suspect held in Mahoning jail

YOUNGSTOWN

The 20-year-old man charged with the city’s most recent murder will remain in the Mahoning County jail on a $1 million bond.

Lamont McQueen of West Lucius Avenue appeared Friday before Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court on a murder charge. He is charged with shooting 19-year-old Cedric Robinson during a fight on the South Side on Wednesday.

McQueen told the judge he has no income and was assigned an attorney.

Prosecutors said McQueen has no prior criminal record, but they requested the high bond.

McQueen returns to court next Friday for a preliminary hearing.

Robinson’s killing is the city’s fourth homicide of 2012, compared with two at this time in 2011.

• Sex with minor nets Pa. man 15 years in jail

CLEVELAND

A 41-year-old Mars, Pa., man, who pleaded guilty to traveling to North Lima for sex with a 15-year-old girl, has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin imposed the sentence Friday on George D. DeLong Jr., who pleaded guilty last fall to enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, receiving a computer image of a minor engaged in such conduct and traveling across the Pennsylvania-Ohio line on Aug. 6 to engage in sex with the Beaver Township girl.

DeLong was arrested in August by Beaver Township police on a state charge of unlawful contact with a minor, but Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court dismissed the state case at the request of an assistant county prosecutor after DeLong was federally indicted in October.

• Street closings today in downtown area

Youngstown

Portions of two downtown streets will be closed today with one of them also closed Sunday.

Market Street, southbound from Commerce to Federal streets, will be closed today and Sunday for a crane to remove PNC Bank signs. PNC is moving its downtown offices to City Center One on East Federal Street.

Also, Boardman Street between Phelps and Hazel streets will be closed today for work on the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority canopy. Detours will be posted.

• Candidates forum set

YOUngstown

The Community Mobilization Committee will sponsor a candidates forum at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Fellowship Hall of New Bethel Baptist Church, 1507 Hillman St. The event will feature candidates running for Mahoning County positions on the March 6 primary ballot.

• Driver in fatal crash avoids felony charge

TOLEDO

The driver of a truck involved in an August chain-reaction crash that killed three people and critically injured a fourth will not face felony criminal charges, a Lucas County grand jury decided.

The grand jury declined Friday to indict John Tucker on three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault. But the Flint, Mich., truck driver likely will face misdemeanor charges in Maumee Municipal Court, authorities said.

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