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Warren man gets 41 years for kidnapping/robbery plus apology from victim
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Taylor Ervin-Williams, center, listens as MaryJo Hoso, a victim-witness advocate in Trumbull County, reads a statement to Judge Ronald Rice. Standing next to Ervin-Williams is Deputy Dominic Massary. Judge Rice sentenced Ervin-Williams to 41 years in prison on kidnapping and robbery charges Wednesday.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Reiko Williamson, the woman who feared that Taylor Ervin-Williams might kill her if she got back into a car with him Feb. 22, 2013, during an armed kidnapping and robbery, said her “heart is aching” for Ervin-Williams.
“I want you to know I take no joy from what is happening here today,” she said in a statement read for her Wednesday during a sentencing hearing that resulted in a 41-year prison term for the 20-year-old Belmont Street Northwest man.
“I’m so sorry that this has happened. My heart is aching right now, not only for my family’s sake but yours as well. I could never be happy that another young man is becoming a part of the prison system,” she said.
Before Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Ervin-Williams, the defendant also spoke, apologizing to Williamson and her son, Bryce Humprey, 19, the other person Ervin-Williams abducted that night.
“To Bryce and Mrs. Williamson, I’m sorry for the trauma and whatever else you went through with this case,” he said. “And hopefully you can sleep better and go on with your life knowing that someone is incarcerated.”
Ervin-Williams abducted the woman and her son from their home on Charles Avenue Southeast after breaking in about 10 p.m., took $40 from Williamson, then ordered the two into their car to drive to an automated-teller machine for more money.
Williamson got out of the car in the parking lot behind the Hot Dog Shoppe on West Market Street, walked to the ATM, withdrew $300 and handed it to Ervin-Williams, but Ervin-Williams ordered her back into the car.
That’s when she decided it was time to “end it” for fear that she and her son might die, so she backed away from the car while motioning to her son to get out.
They both ran for help, and Ervin-Williams fled in the car.
The two flagged down a young driver on the street and also got help from workers in the Hot Dog Shoppe.
She called them “certainly angels sent to help us,” because the young man allowed them to call 911, and the restaurant employees also called 911 “as well as giving us warm clothing to put on.”
She added, “We were out on a cold February night with no coats or shoes on, and they literally gave us the clothes off of their backs,” she said.
“Another employee warmed up her car and waited with us until help arrived, and they called an ambulance when for me when I experienced a life-threatening asthsma attack,” she added.
Police spotted the car Ervin-Williams had taken from Williamson and her son a short time later close to Williamson’s home and followed the car until it stopped near his home.
He bailed out and ran with police capturing him in the upstairs apartment above his own apartment.
A jury convicted him last week of two counts of kidnapping and single counts of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery, failing to comply with the orders of a police officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and tampering with evidence.
Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, noted in a sentencing memorandum that Warren police found and chased Ervin-Williams near the location where two of Williams’ young children and one of their friends were left alone and vulnerable as a result of the kidnappings.
Becker had asked Judge Rice to sentence Ervin-Williams to 65 years in prison.
Becker said after the sentencing he hopes the 41-year prison sentence “sends a clear message to anyone who would think of committing these types of crimes in the city of Warren.”
He commended Judge Rice for being a “law-and-order” judge and commended the Warren Police Department for catching Ervin-Williams and for other work in the case.