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Man who served sentence in '98 killing back in court
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who served time in prison for the death of his girlfriend in 1998 is in the Mahoning County jail on $10,000 bond after he was arraigned Wednesday for violating a protection order.
Pernell Harrison, 54, of Lansdowne Boulevard was arrested on a warrant Monday at his home for violating the order a 51-year-old woman obtained June 29 against him.
According to court records, Harrison is accused of violating the order twice since then, the latest time Saturday, when the woman told police she received a call on her cellphone from Harrison, which is in violation of the order.
The woman did not answer the call but did call police, reports said.
Harrison was accused in the Nov. 8, 1998, slaying of his girlfriend, Ada Hill, at the Oak Street home they shared. Hill worked part time as a security guard in the police department.
Harrison was found guilty of murder in 2002 during a bench trial in common pleas court before Judge James C. Evans and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
The conviction was overturned in 2004 by the 7th District Court of Appeals, however, and remanded back to common pleas court. There, Harrison entered a guilty plea to a charge of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with credit for the time he already had served.
Court records do not say when Harrison was released from prison.
City Prosecutor Dana Lantz told Judge Kobly the victim in the case is “in desperate fear for her life.”
Harrison told the judge he dialed the woman’s number by accident, but the judge advised him not to talk about the facts of the case without a lawyer present.