Jury selection begins in stabbing trial

YOUNGSTOWN — Jury selection began this morning for the trial of a 24-year-old Cambridge Avenue man in the March 29, 2013, stabbing of a Boardman woman.

Patrick D. Howard is on trial before Visiting Judge Paul Mitrovich of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Howard was indicted on one count of attempted murder and two counts each of felonious assault and aggravated robbery in the wounding of Jessica Helpy. who was stabbed multiple times at 3:45 a.m. in her apartment in the 4000 block of South Avenue.

Police Lt. Ed McConnell reported he saw Howard shortly after the stabbing at Lake Park Road and Midlothian Boulevard, cut him off with his cruiser and held him at gunpoint when he tried to run away.

Howard’s lawyer, John B. Juhasz, sought to exclude Howard’s statements to police from evidence on the grounds that Howard didn’t understand his constitutional right to remain silent.

However, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum overruled that motion, saying Howard was informed of his right to remain silent by three different police officers on three different occasions, and that Howard knowingly and voluntarily waived that right.