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Jury convicts Warren man of kidnapping, robbery, burglary at gunpoint
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court deliberated only one hour before finding Taylor Ervin-Williams 20, guilty of two counts of kidnapping and single counts of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.
Ervin-Williams, of Belmont Street Northwest, broke into a Charles Street Southeast home with a gun at 10 p.m. Feb. 22, robbing a 44-year-old woman, then kidnapping her and her 19-year-old son, forcing the woman to drive to an ATM to get more money.
The woman took the maximum she could — $300 — from the ATM in the parking lot behind the Hot Dog Shoppe on West Market Street and gave it to Ervin-Williams, who was in the back seat of the car, pointing a gun at her son.
When Ervin-Williams ordered her back in the car, she refused, then she and her son ran away, calling 911 with the help of a passing motorist.
Police spotted the woman’s car a short time later and chased it, then chased Ervin-Williams on foot to the house where Ervin-Williams lived.
He was found in bed with a woman in the upstairs half of the house that was being rented by another person.
Atty. Gilbert W.R. Rucker III, who represented Ervin-Williams, told jurors in closing arguments that the identification of Ervin-Williams made to police by 19-year-old Bryce Humphrey wasn’t done properly.
Police took Humphrey to Belmont Street just after they arrested Ervin-Williams. They let Humphrey listen to Ervin-Williams speak, and Humphrey identified Ervin-Williams as the kidnapper partly through hearing his voice.
Instead, the police should have taken Ervin-Williams to the police station and had him in a lineup with other men, Rucker said.
During testimony before Judge Ronald Rice on Wednesday morning, two Warren police officers testified that Ervin-Williams essentially confessed committing the crimes the night of the kidnappings by what he said to them as officers led him away from his home.
Patrolman Brian Cononico testified that Ervin-Williams yelled that the eight Warren police officers involved in the chase were “soft,” that their new police cruisers were slow, and “we couldn’t keep up with him.”
Ervin-Williams will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Wednesday by Judge Rice, and could get more than 30 years in prison.