Warren man's kidnapping trial underway

A Charles Avenue Southeast woman testified that she feared she and her son would be killed if she got back into her car with an armed kidnapper/robber Feb. 22, so she chose to “end it” now.

After walking back to the car and giving the masked man the $300 from an ATM machine near the Hot Dog Shoppe on West Market Street, she took decisive action.

Instead of getting back in the car with her son and the masked man, she backed away, motioning to her son to get out, and she ran.

When she looked back, her son was running with her, and they eventually flagged down a passer-by who let them use his cell phone to call 911.

“We didn’t even have shoes on,” Reiko Williamson said during the first day of testimony in the trial of Taylor Ervin-Williams, 20, of Belmont Street Northwest.

Williamson’s son, Bryce Humphrey, 19, testified later that he was “very certain” that Ervin-Williams, the man Warren police captured a short time later, was the person who committed the kidnapping, burglary and robbery.

The trial resumes this afternoon in the courtroom of Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

For the complete story, read Wednesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com