Man found in murder victim's car arraigned

July 31, 2014 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A man who was found early Monday in a car belonging to a murder victim was arraigned Wednesday in municipal court.

Hiawatha Johnson, 27, of Youngstown, was arraigned before Magistrate Anthony Sertick on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and possession of drugs/heroin.

Sertick set Johnson’s bond at $35,000. He remains in the Mahoning County jail.

Reports said officers were clearing the scene of a homicide in the 300 block of Carroll Street on Monday morning where the body of 27-year-old Zachary Frischkorn was found in a lot about 1 a.m. Frischkorn had died of a gunshot wound to the chest, and his death has been ruled a homicide, the sixth in the city this year.

As officers were leaving about 2:50 a.m. they spotted Frischkorn’s car, which reports said he was on the South Side looking for, at Carroll Street and Overland Avenue. Police pulled it over in a driveway in the 500 block of Falls Avenue.

Reports said officers used extreme caution approaching the car and had Johnson come out at gunpoint. The car was searched, and a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun was found along with 13 individual doses of heroin.

Reports said the make, model, color and plates on the car all matched the car belonging to Frischkorn.

Another vehicle that Frischkorn drove, an SUV, was found in Boardman by police there Monday evening, said Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn.

Blackburn said Johnson has been questioned by detectives in Frischkorn’s death, but he has not been charged in his slaying.

Records from common pleas court show Johnson has felony convictions from 2008, 2012 and 2013 that prohibit him from having a firearm.

Blackburn said detectives are still working on Frischkorn’s case.