Man accused in Trumbull jail hostage incident pleads guilty to three robberies

Staff report

WARREN

Richard G. Ware, 27, of North Leavitt Road, one of three men accused of taking a Trumbull County jail corrections officer hostage for five hours in April, has pleaded guilty to three aggravated robberies and could get 44 years in prison.

Ware entered his plea Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for the robberies, all of which occurred over a two-week period last December.

He will be sentenced in about a month, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation. He has not been charged in the jail incident.

The first case involved the Dec. 4 robbery of a man at Woodland Avenue and Chestnut Street Northeast in which Ware pistol-whipped his victim, causing a severe laceration that required staples to close.

On Dec. 11, he hit a 73-year-old man on Monroe Street Northwest with the victim’s cane.

On Dec. 17, 2013, he robbed the CVS pharmacy, 620 E. Market St., armed with a knife.

A gun specification ensures that he will get at least three years in prison, but he could get much more, said Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.

Ware and two other men, David Martin, 29, of Cleveland, and Kevin Johns, 24, of Cincinnati, are accused of taking a corrections officer hostage at 3:30 p.m. April 23 while the officer was making rounds.

They held the officer hostage by holding a homemade knife to his throat, jail officials said.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations has turned over its investigation in the hostage incident to officials from the Trumbull County Prosecutors office, but no charges have been filed.