Two 20-year-olds indicted on Niles aggravated-robbery charges

Two 20-year-olds indicted on Niles aggravated-robbery charges

WARREN

Two 20-year-old men have been indicted on three counts each of aggravated robbery in connection with an April 18 incident involving three young men, ages 18 to 20, who reported being robbed and threatened at gunpoint in Niles.

Indicted on three counts each of aggravated robbery with a specification that a gun was used are Mitchell A Minneti, 20, of Pinehurst Drive in Girard, and Nicholas A. Lucariello, 20, of Mason Street in NIles.

Minneti will be arraigned July 9 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Lucariello was arraigned Tuesday, entered an innocent plea, and bond was set at $25,000. If convicted, each man faces a possible prison sentence of about 30 years.

Niles police said the charges stemmed from a report by three young men from Niles and Girard who reported going to a residence on Mason Street in Niles at 2:05 a.m. to purchase a $10 “dime bag” of marijuana.

When they arrived, Minneti and Lucariello came out of the house, got into the victims’ vehicle and had them go to an abandoned house on Summit Street in Niles.

There was an altercation at the residence over an earlier drug deal, and Minneti pulled out a large-capacity handgun and threatened the three victims with it and struck one of them in the face with it, while Lucariello punched that same victim in the face, according to police.

When the victims returned to Mason Street, Minneti and Lucariello took two cell phones, $10 and a pack of cigarettes from the victims, police said. Minneti and Lucariello also told the victims the beating and robbery was “what you get” when you mess with CRIPS, a street gang affiliated with drug dealing and violence, police said.