Bound over to jury

Bound over to jury

GIRARD

A murder case out of Liberty Township has been bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury.

Brandon Cagley, 30, of Lucretia Drive faces a felony murder charge in connection with the death of his stepgrandfather James Phillips, 81, of the same Lucretia Drive address.

The Trumbull County Coroner’s office ruled Phillips death to be homicide.

Cagley called 911 Sunday afternoon, saying he shot Phillips because Phillips was going to shoot his wife, who is Cagley’s grandmother.

Phillips, who is being held in the Trumbull County Jail, appeared today in Girard Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing. A judge amended his bond to $75,000. If Cagley posts bond, he will be under house arrest.

Suspected crack found

YOUNGSTOWN

Police said they found four bags of suspected crack cocaine inside the fist of a Moherman Avenue man Tuesday.

Brian Zordich, 50, was arraigned in municipal court Wednesday on a charge of possession of crack cocaine. His bond was set at $5,000.

Reports said Zordich was a passenger in a car pulled over Tuesday afternoon on Poland Avenue for running a red light. When officers walked up to the car, there were bags of suspected crack cocaine or pieces of the drug in his hand.

Animal-cruelty case

CAMPBELL

An animal-cruelty case involving a dog found frozen to death in 2015 has been dismissed and refiled for another trial.

Tameka Smith, 25, was scheduled appear Wednesday in Campbell Municipal Court for trial. However, due to an error in the charging document, the defense accepted the prosecution’s motion to dismiss that case without prejudice.

Smith was rearraigned on a second-degree misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty. The new case is set to go straight to trial by the end of June, Prosecutor Brian Macala said.

Police first charged her in January 2015 after finding the dog tied up in the rear yard of a Reed Avenue home. Defense Attorney James E. Lanzo has said his client is not guilty, noting that documents show she did not live at Reed Avenue at the time of the dog’s death.

Turned over info

WARREN

Kendell Lee Stauffer, a former employee of the Trumbull County Engineer’s office, was among those telling county commissioners Thursday that the Ohio Ethics Commission turned over information to the county prosecutor’s office regarding an investigation of the engineer’s office. Neither the ethics commission, Engineer Randy Smith nor Prosecutor Dennis Watkins would comment.

Sidewalk contract

WARREN

Trumbull County commissioners Wednesday awarded a contract of $547,618 to Foust Construction of Girard to build a sidewalk on both sides of North River Road in Howland Township. The project involves 4,590 feet of sidewalk on the south side and 3,850 feet on the north side, said Gary Shaffer, deputy engineer with the county engineer’s office.

The sidewalks will run from state Route 46 west to near the Superior Carr Wash, 3760 N. River Road, where the Howland Multipurpose Trail begins and travels south to the Howland Township Park.

Shaffer said he hopes the construction will begin by mid-June and be complete within about a month. The engineer’s office and Howland Townshp will pay 20 percent of the project cost – about $55,000 each.