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Jury convicts city man in stabbing
YOUNGSTOWN
A jury convicted a 24-year-old Cambridge Avenue man of two counts of felonious assault in the March 29, 2013, stabbing of a Boardman woman.
Jurors, however, acquitted him of one count of attempted murder and of two counts of aggravated robbery.
The verdict concerning Patrick D. Howard came late Tuesday afternoon after 90 minutes of deliberations at the end of a two-day trial before visiting Judge Paul Mitrovich of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
A sentencing date has not been set. Each felonious assault count carries a two- to eight-year prison term.
Jessica Helpy was stabbed four times in her back, hands and face at 3:45 a.m. in her apartment in the 4000 block of South Avenue.
The aggravated-robbery charges alleged the theft of Helpy’s cellphone and a makeup bag.
Keith Marshall of Canfield, jury foreman, said the prosecution failed to prove attempted murder beyond a reasonable doubt and that the alleged theft after she was stabbed did not meet all the criteria for the aggravated robbery charges.
“We do not know who initiated the struggle,” he observed.
“The evidence met all the criteria” for the felonious-assault counts, Marshall said.
The assault occurred during the first meeting between Howard and Helpy, who had made contact through a website, Marshall said.
“Attempted murders are tough [to prove], especially when we don’t have vicious wounds to vital organs,” observed Nicholas Brevetta, an assistant county prosecutor.
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.