Suspect in robberies has cases bound over
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A link found in a recent East High School basketball roster helped a detective charge a suspect in five robberies as well as an accomplice in one of them.
Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert testified about that link Friday in a preliminary hearing for Jarel Gadson, 20, of Alameda Avenue, in municipal court, who faces five counts of aggravated robbery.
Judge Elizabeth Kobly bound all five charges over to a Mahoning County grand jury after the hearing. A co-defendant in one of the cases, Deandre Smith, 21, of Chatman Lane, waived his preliminary hearing on the single count he faces. A grand jury also will hear that case.
Gadson is a suspect in a series of robberies of Youngstown State University students near campus in August, as well as the robbery of a man who went to a Tyrell Avenue apartment complex Aug. 25 to meet someone he made an arrangement with to sell a pair of shoes. Instead, the victim in that case testified Friday that Smith pulled a gun while he was inside the building, took his wallet, phone and the shoes. The victim also testified that he saw Gadson just before the robbery.
The victim also testified that he used a friend’s cell- phone to track his phone and it came back to an Alameda Avenue address. He said he went to the street and saw the same car from the apartment complex in a driveway there. When he was interviewed by detectives, he was able to identify Gadson because he had played high school basketball against him.
The victim also said he played high school basketball against Smith, but he did not know his name, so Lambert testified that he looked through old rosters and team photos for East and was able to find a person who matched the description of the person who robbed the victim. The victim then identified Smith, and later identified Gadson in a separate lineup.
Two people were robbed of their phones earlier in the morning when two YSU students said they were walking to a party on Cordova and Benita avenues when a car pulled up and two men got out, one of them holding a gun. The person holding the gun matched Gadson’s description, Lambert said.
Lambert got a search warrant for Gadson’s home and found the victim’s phone there.
The last robbery was Aug. 28 on Park Avenue, when someone stole cash, credit cards and phones from two students outside a fraternity house at gunpoint. That robbery was committed after the search warrant was served at Gadson’s home and a warrant had been issued for Gadson’s arrest, said city Prosecutor Dana Lantz.
Gadson is also a suspect in an attempted robbery of two YSU students at an Ohio Avenue apartment Aug. 14.
, but Lambert said he cannot get the victims to cooperate. One has a warrant in a traffic case and is afraid he will be arrested if he meets with police, Lambert said.