Niles man’s bond $1.5 million on murder charge

Staff report

WARREN

Michael Settle, 26, of Sherman Avenue, Niles, is in the Trumbull County Jail in lieu of $1.5 million bond in the April 7 shooting death of James R. Levels.

Warren Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak entered a not-guilty plea for Settle. Settle is charged with murder in a purported robbery at a house on South Street Southeast that turned deadly.

Police reports said Lisa Prater, 48, of the South Street address reported that two men entered her home to commit a robbery and shot her and Levels. Prater survived.

Settle, then of Ohio Avenue in McDonald, was sentenced to three years in prison in May 2010 after being convicted of aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property.

The charges stemmed from an armed robbery at the Toot-N-Scoot drive-thru on Elm Road in February 2010.

Police spotted a car shortly afterward matching the description of the one used in the robbery, and a chase ensued.

The car crashed, and Settle was found about 100 yards away and taken into custody.

The vehicle he was driving had been reported stolen earlier in Warren.

Settle also was the victim of a gunshot wound to the chest in March 2013 on Clarence Street Southeast from what a Warren police detective called “stray bullets” from gunfire at a Youngstown Road business.