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Wife in Facebook case said husband told her to stay home
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman arrested with her husband early Tuesday for purportedly accepting a challenge to fight issued on Facebook said during her arraignment her husband warned her to stay home.
Lakeisha Cotton, 22, told Visiting Judge Dino Prassinos in Youngstown Municipal Court on Wednesday her husband David, 25, did not want her to accept the Internet challenge when Judge Prassinos asked if the couple was like the famed criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde.
“We are like Bonnie and Clyde, but he told me to stay home, and I wouldn’t listen,” Lakeisha Cotton said.
The judge set a bond of $20,000 each for the Cottons, who were arraigned on a charge of aggravated burglary. They were arrested at an apartment in the 100 block of West Boston Avenue about 12:40 a.m. Tuesday.
A woman there told police she posted on Facebook the challenge to fight Lakeisha Cotton, and Lakeisha had her husband drive her to the home.
Reports said Lakeisha Cotton became upset when the woman would not answer the door, so she popped the locks out of a window, her husband crawled through the window into the apartment and unlocked the door so his wife could get in and fight the woman.
The judge also ordered the couple to have no contact with the woman.
“I didn’t contact her. She contacted me,” she told Judge Prassinos.
“If she contacts you again, run away from her,” Judge Prassinos said.
Family members who attended the arraignment, but did not want to be identified, said the dispute stems from an ongoing family feud between Lakeisha Cotton and the woman.
David Cotton asked for a lower bond, saying the couple has four children, including a special-needs child, he needs to care for. But Judge Prassinos said he agreed with the prosecution recommendation of a $20,000 bond.
“You should have thought about your children before you engaged in this type of conduct,” Judge Prassinos said.
The children were being cared for by relatives when the couple drove to the woman’s home.