Man indicted for Austintown standoff

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man who held police at bay outside his home on the Fourth of July was indicted by a Mahoning County grand jury Thursday.

John Andrei Jr., 31, Kirk Road, Austintown, is charged with endangering children, a third-degree felony, and domestic violence, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Police were called after the mother of their 4-year-old son came home late July 3, noticed injuries on him and took the boy to St. Elizabeth Health Center. Hospital authorities notified township police, who went to arrest Andrei.

Officers arrived about 3 a.m. and found him inside his garage with a butcher’s knife. Some officers went inside the home and found an empty gun case, so police backed off and called for assistance from the Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team.

Officers negotiated with him for about 21/2 hours before he surrendered.

Andrei has a criminal history, according to online court records. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct in 2013 and domestic violence in 2012 and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of failure to comply in a hit-and-run incident in 2010, all in Austintown.

He also served three days in jail for operating a vehicle under the influence in 2004 through records from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and five days on a second OVI from OSHP in 2006.

Also Thursday, five people were indicted on charges they broke into homes and cars in Poland and Canfield in June.

Those indicted were Mark Mansfield, 31, of North Main Street in Youngstown; Rex Putnam II, 34, of Folsom Street Northwest in Warren; Roxann Putnam, 32, of State Road in Warren; Keith Sarrach, 23 of Warren Avenue in Niles; and Tera Watters, 24, of Warren Avenue in Youngstown. They face charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, burglary, attempted theft, theft and receiving stolen property.

According to the indictment, the pattern of corrupt activity for the five was the burglary of a Mulberry Walk home in Poland on June 17 in which several items were taken, and two other incidents that day.

The five also are accused of attempting to take a car at an undisclosed address in Poland, only to have the car stall in the street; and also of stealing wallets, golf clubs and other items from nine vehicles.

Additionally, four of those indicted, all but Sarrach, are accused of entering six vehicles on St. Ursula Drive in Canfield Township on June 8 and taking property and entering two vehicles that were in a garage on Lake Wobegon Road in Canfield and taking a purse and credit cards.

The indictments says the four were caught on video cameras using the cards at various businesses.