Thursday, July 24, 2014
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman arraigned on two felonies Wednesday in municipal court said she was worried about her five children as a visiting judge gave her a $100,000 bond.
However, Judge Barbara Watson told 38-year-old Melissa Warner of Halls Heights that perhaps her children should have been on her mind before she was arrested.
“You should have given some thought to this before you left your children at home,” the visiting judge said.
Warner was arraigned on two fifth- degree felony charges of receiving stolen property and possession of criminal tools. A co-defendant, Weylin Jennings Scott, 35, of Ridgelawn Avenue, was given a $100,000 bond as well for a receiving stolen property charge, also a fifth-degree felony, and a charge of resisting arrest.
The two were arrested at Diver Steel City scrap yard on Himrod Avenue on Monday. Police were called there by employees suspicious of metal counterweights used in the arms of railroad crossings that the two had in their car.
Scott ran from police when they arrived and was shot with an electronic stun gun, reports said. The weights had come from two crossings in the city and two others in Trumbull County, police said.
Assistant City Prosecutor Kathy Thompson asked for a high bond for Scott because he already is wanted on a burglary charge by the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and because he has an extensive record.
Thompson said past arrests for Scott include drug and abduction offenses in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Thompson said past charges for Warner include corrupting minors and endangering children, also in Pennsylvania. Thompson said she was asking for a bond of $50,000 each on the charges Warner faces because she is a co-defendant in the case.
Patrolman Dave Santangelo of the police department, who investigates scrap-metal crimes, said the weights are typically valued at about $89 apiece. He said the pair had 23 of the weights in the car they were driving when they were arrested Monday. He put the total value at about $2,000 in weights when they were arrested.
Judge Watson told Warner if she can not make bail she will have a preliminary hearing within the next 10 days, and her attorney at that time can make an argument for a lower bail.