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Suspect in several shootings snagged in heroin ring
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Samuel Richard’s criminal career seems to have a recurring theme: Nobody talks.
Of course, that works both ways.
A suspect and victim in several shootings, one as recently as May 27, Richard, 26, was captured Tuesday during a roundup of 37 people who were indicted in connection with a local heroin ring.
He was caught on Palmer Avenue about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday as officers began serving arrest warrants for those secretly indicted by a grand jury July 16.
Youngstown police Detective Sgt. John Elberty, head of the Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team, said Richard was arrested with no trouble, and police found two guns in his car. He said Richard was leaving his home when officers spotted him and were able to pull him over and arrest him. He is now in Mahoning County jail.
Richard and the others arrested Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be arraigned today in common pleas court.
Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the Detective Bureau said Richard is familiar to detectives who investigate shootings and other acts of violence.
“His name comes up all the time in police reports,” Bobovnyik said.
At times, Richard is listed as a suspect, and at times he’s listed as a victim.
Last June, he was found lying face down in a parking lot at Market Street and Southern Boulevard about 4:30 a.m. one Sunday with several gunshot wounds. Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert said that Richard had a bulletproof vest, but was wounded several times, including once in the stomach; he now wears a colostomy bag.
Reports also noted that about 20 people were gathered around Richard then, but no one said they saw or heard a thing, according to officers on the scene.
Richard also is a suspect in a May 27 shooting in the 200 block of Potomac Avenue, where a woman was shot in the shoulder and a man was grazed in the foot. Detective Sgt. Ronald Rodway is handling the case, but he said it has been stalled because the victims refuse to cooperate.
There are other cases where Richard is a suspect, but the result is the same, according to detectives: No one wants to talk to police.
Bobovnyik said that is part of the mindset detectives have to deal with when they investigate shootings in high-crime neighborhoods when well-known criminals are involved.
“That’s life on the streets,” Bobovnyik said. “The attitude is, ‘Let’s not get the police involved. We’ll take care of it ourselves.’”
Lambert said that Richard first came onto detectives’ radar when he was a juvenile, and his juvenile record consists of arrests for burglary, theft and disorderly conduct in January 2004; receiving stolen property, criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct in February 2005; and improper discharge of a firearm and illegal conveyance of a weapon into a detention facility in December 2005, for which he was sent to the Department of Youth Services.
His adult criminal record includes a conviction for possession of heroin and escape in common pleas court in 2008. He was sentenced to two years’ probation but later was found to have violated his probation and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He now has a pending felony receiving stolen property charge in common pleas court for which he was out on bond for when he was arrested Tuesday.
Rodway and Bobovnyik said these cases take their toll on neighborhoods.