Warren deaths ruled homicides; one victim had just received a protection order

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The man and woman found dead in a home on Ivanhoe Street Northeast late Friday died from gunshot wounds and not from the fire, the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office has ruled. Their deaths have been ruled homicides.

Charles McNear, 53, who owned the house at 448 Ivanhoe, was one of the victims. The coroner’s office lists the other as Sophie Stefek, 41, his girlfriend, Warren police said.

There was no smoke in their lungs, which is evidence that the fire didn’t cause their deaths, police said, adding that there is evidence suggesting they died a short time before the fire.

Lt. Jeff Cole of the Warren Police Department said he is not able to discuss evidence that suggests the time of their deaths.

Warren police say McNear had been named in police reports or calls for service eight times in the past 30 days.

He made two calls for help Wednesday. At 10:45 a.m., he called police to say that Trumbull County Common Pleas Court had issued a protection order he sought against a 42-year-old city man who had been staying at his house.

He asked police to make the man and another woman leave. But police were unable to locate either of them.

McNear also called 911 at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday because he “heard noises” at his house. Officers responded, but no report was written, suggesting that nothing unusual was found.

McNear told Magistrate Patrick McCarthy on Oct. 20, the day of a court hearing on McNear’s civil protection order, that he had been advised by Warren police to seek the protection order.

McNear told McCarthy he’d contacted Warren police earlier about wanting the 42-year-old and the woman to leave his home, but police advised him to seek a protection order instead. McCarthy approved an emergency civil protection order Oct. 20.

A deputy with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office located the 42-year-old about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday on the sidewalk outside of the North End Market on North Park Avenue and served the protection order on him. The man told the deputy he had not been at the house in more than a week, the deputy said.

Cole said Warren police are continuing to investigate the link to the 42-year-old and the protection order, but they have no suspects yet.

Cole said he can’t comment on the specifics of McNear’s issues with the man, but officers sometimes refer a person to the common pleas court for a protection order or to Warren Municipal Court for an eviction, depending on the circumstances.

At the protection order hearing, McNear said the 42-year-old man and the woman had come to live at his house about two weeks earlier, though he never invited the man. He said Stefek wanted him there.

McNear said he asked the man to leave in mid-October and he refused, threatening and assaulting him, McNear said, adding that he told Warren police about it.

“When I asked him to leave ... he physically knocked me down,” McNear said, adding that the man “held a chair to my head.” McNear said on other occasions the man “said he would beat me up until I could not speak.”

“I have a physical disability, and he preys on that,” McNear told McCarthy. “I am scared to death of this person.”

McCarthy’s order said the 42-year-old was no longer allowed in McNear’s home, and he was not allowed to harm McNear or others in his household.

The order was effective through Jan. 20, and a hearing for a more permanent order was scheduled for Nov. 5.