43
Man who threatened to jump off Market Street bridge indicted
By John W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
A Mahoning County grand jury handed up indictments against a Boardman man accused of trying to kill his wife and then threatening to jump from the Market Street bridge as well as four men charged in a wine-store robbery and beating.
The grand jury Thursday indicted John F. Sylvester Jr., 37, of Jaguar Drive, on charges of attempted murder and felonious assault on his estranged wife by stabbing her with a knife.
He’s also charged with kidnapping her and endangering their 2-year-old son.
The charges also carry repeat violent-offender specifications attached to the purported offenses against his wife.
Sylvester is charged with stabbing his wife several times, cutting her on her neck, shoulder and hands after an argument in their home in the presence of their son. The kidnapping charge alleges he restrained his wife’s liberty.
She is recovering from her injuries, police said.
After a four-hour standoff, police coaxed Sylvester down and arrested and jailed him later Sunday after he threatened to jump off the bridge in Youngstown.
Judge Joseph M. Houser of Mahoning County Area Court, Boardman, set his bond at $2 million Tuesday. Sylvester is in the county jail.
The repeat violent- offender specifications, which could add to Sylvester’s prison time if he’s convicted, stem from an attempted murder conviction in 1999.
In that case, Sylvester pleaded guilty to the attempted murder pertaining to a 1996 incident in which he was accused of ambushing a 19-year-old ex-girlfriend outside her apartment and shooting her multiple times in the head and torso.
He was sentenced to seven to 25 years in prison for that crime and released in 2006.
The grand jury also handed up indictments for aggravated robbery, kidnapping, illegal possession of a weapon and carrying concealed weapons against Quashaun Tubbs, 18; Joshua Ben-Naim, 20; Isiah Mosley, 19; and Vanets Jones III, 27, all of Youngstown.
According to police, three of the men entered the Mahoning Wine Shoppe on Mahoning Avenue in May with their faces covered.
One of the men pulled out a handgun and demanded that clerks inside the store hand over the money in the cash register.
Two of the men began taking money out of the register and stuffing it into a pillow case. One of the men demanded the clerk’s cellphone, and when she refused to hand it over, she was beaten repeatedly in the head and face.
The robbery and assault lasted for several minutes until a customer walked into the store and yelled for the men to stop.
They all ran out of the store to a waiting car with the fourth man driving. Police intercepted the car as the four tried to escape via Interstate 680.