METRO DIGEST || Body of East Liverpool man missing since New Year’s Eve found

Body of East Liverpool man found in river

EAST LIVERPOOL

The body of a man whose pickup truck was seen Saturday going off the Jennings Randolph Bridge and plunging 100 feet into the Ohio River was found inside the vehicle and recovered Thursday.

Officials identified the victim as Steve House, 44, a father of two and manager of the Rite Aid Pharmacy in East Liverpool, reported 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.

The truck was found with sonar Wednesday and pulled from the river Thursday. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.

House had been missing since New Year’s Eve.

Court control ends for man found incompetent

WARREN

Gerald Harnar, 72, who was ruled incompetent to stand trial in 2003 in the shooting of a Trumbull County deputy sheriff, no longer will be under the jurisdiction of common pleas court as of today.

Harnar appeared Thursday in the courtroom of Judge Ronald Rice, where Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker said Harnar had been subject to court jurisdiction for the maximum period allowed by law.

Ohio law says a person deemed mentally ill can be kept under court jurisdiction up to the possible prison sentence of the single most-serious charge he faced if he had been convicted.

Harnar was charged with felonious assault on a peace officer, accused of shooting Deputy Mike Davis during a standoff with police at his home on Parkman Road in Warren Township in 2001. Davis returned to work several weeks afterward.

Becker said a guardianship was established in county probate court for Harnar, who lives with restrictions at a Niles assisted-living facility.

Mahoning County man jailed in home invasion

WARREN

Lamar Q. Holmes Jr., 20, of Ninth Street in Struthers and Tangent Street in Youngstown, is in the Trumbull County Jail without eligibility to post bond after pleading not guilty Thursday to charges related to an October home-invasion robbery on Syme Street in Masury.

Holmes was indicted in December in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, kidnapping and grand theft. If convicted, he could get 40 years in prison.

Holmes and two others were arrested in an attack on a Syme Street man that required the victim to receive stitches.