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Teen robbery suspect gets 100k bond
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Kenneth Kpakima has not even been 18 for a month and already he has no steady home and legally is not allowed to own a gun.
He also is in the Mahoning County jail on a $100,000 bond after he was arraigned before Judge Elizabeth Kobly in municipal court on a robbery charge Friday. He was arrested on the charge in the 300 block of East Ravenwood Avenue about 7:10 a.m. Thursday.
Kpakima was asked if he still lived at an Inverness Avenue address that was listed on police records, but he said he did not. He said his grandmother kicked him out of the house and he has been staying with a friend and his mother, but she has no steady address and they move around often.
City Prosecutor Dana Lantz said Kpakima was kicked out of his grandmother’s house because he asked her for a gun. Police Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert said Kpakima had run away from his grandmother’s home a couple of weeks ago while he was on house arrest from Mahoning County Juvenile Court.
Lambert said Kpakima had cut off his monitoring bracelet when he ran away and returned Monday. When he returned to the grandmother’s house, he asked for a gun, and that is when she threw him out, Lambert said.
Lantz told Judge Kobly that Kpakima was placed into custody with his grandmother because of abuse he suffered as a child.
Lantz also said Kpakima had a prior incident involving a firearm when he shot an elderly man with a pellet gun then stood over him with the gun. He has other juvenile charges that prohibit him from having a firearm. He turned 18 on May 21, according to jail records.
Police were called Thursday to South Avenue and Cambridge Street, where an 18-year-old man told them he was walking down the street when two people approached him and demanded his cellphone. When the man said no, Kpakima began to punch him in the head and he fell to the ground. The other person kicked the victim and took the phone.
A third person was across the street filming the robbery with his own cellphone, reports said.
The victim managed to take his cellphone back and called police. A witness identified the three and led police to the house on East Ravenwood Avenue, where Kpakima was arrested.
According to reports, the other two suspects remain at large.