Trial for death of Warren 3-year-old delayed until June

WARREN

The trial for Arthur A. Harper, 43, of High Street Northeast, charged with killing Russell Cottrill, 3, has been reset to June 6.

The delay is because the Ohio Public Defender’s Office asked to be removed from Harper’s case because it has a conflict in representing Harper.

Judge Peter Kontos assigned Atty. John Juhasz to the case, but Juhasz represents former Mahoning County Auditor Mike Sciortino in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-corruption case, which is scheduled to go to trial in Cleveland Feb. 29, the same day Harper was scheduled to to to trial.

Harper called 911 at 6:38 p.m. Nov. 28 to report that Cottrill, the son of Harper’s common-law wife, was unresponsive. The boy died two days later from what a Warren police detective called “severe head trauma.”