Man gets 7 more years for Trumbull jail hostage taking

WARREN — Kevin T. Johns of Cincinnati, who participated in a hostage-taking at the Trumbull County jail eight days after being sentenced for rape and kidnapping in Warren, received an additional seven years in prison Tuesday for the hostage situation.

Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Johns to 35 years in prison for the incident to be served at the same time as the 28 years he’s already serving.

Johns, 25, who prosecutors said moved to Warren because of meeting now-deceased Warren man Taemarr Walker in prison and accepting his invitation to stay with Walker, pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping, aggravated robbery, possessing a deadly weapon while under detention, felonious assault and resistance to lawful authority.

Walker, 24, died Oct. 19, 2013, in a confrontation with a Warren police officer.

Johns and two other inmates, Richard D. Ware, 27 of Warren, and David Martin, 30, of Cleveland, took corrections officer Joe Lynn hostage April 23, 2014, authorities said.

A 5-hour standoff resulted from the hostage-taking, which involved plastic knives made out of spoons being used to threaten the life of the corrections officer.

Ware awaits an Aug. 17 trial on the same charges as Johns. Ware is currently serving 23 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of aggravated robbery and one of felonious assault for three Trumbull County robberies in December 2013.

Martin was not charged in the hostage-taking because there was no good reason to add more penalties to the death sentence Martin already has for a Warren murder, prosecutors said.

The hostage incident ended peacefully when the inmates gave themselves over to authorities.