Warren man jailed on aggravated burglary charge

Staff report

WARREN

A city man convicted of the 2007 involuntary manslaughter of his brother is in the Trumbull County Jail without eligibility to make bond after being charged Monday with aggravated burglary.

Charles H. Smith Jr., 54, of Washington Street Northeast and Kinsman Street Northwest, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Warren Municipal Court to the burglary and possession of drug paraphernalia after a woman reported that he forced his way into her house Monday night in the 400 block of Belmont Street Northeast.

The woman said Smith knocked at her door and talked to her momentarily before pushing his way in. She eventually pushed him back out. When police arrived, they saw him still outside the house looking into a first-floor window.

The officer asked him what he was doing, and Smith threw a small, metal pipe to the ground. It appeared to be the type of pipe used to smoke crack cocaine, police said.

Smith was sentenced to three years in prison in 2009 for using drugs while he was on probation for the involuntary manslaughter of his brother, Carl Smith, 28, at his family’s Kinsman Street Northwest home in April 2007.

Judge Thomas Gysegem told Smith he wasn’t eligible for bond because his new charge triggers a possible probation violation on a 2013 conviction.