Female suspect in taxi robberies, stabbing, arraigned

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A woman accused of robbing one taxi driver and stabbing another one during a robbery was arraigned Monday in municipal court.

Desiree Byrd, 19, of South Dunlap Avenue, is in the Mahoning County jail on $650,000 bond after her arraignment on two counts of aggravated robbery and a single count of attempted murder.

Jail records show U.S. marshals took her into custody Friday.

She is accused of stabbing a 33-year-old taxi driver late May 18 on Gibson Street on the South Side. Reports said the driver picked up a woman and two men and when he asked for the fare up front, one of the men put a gun to his head and demanded money and the woman stabbed him in the stomach. All three then ran away.

The other robbery Byrd is accused of taking part in occurred May 14, when a man and a woman robbed a 28-year-old driver who reports said was asked to take the couple to Taft Avenue, also on the South Side. The man had a gun and the woman put a knife to the man’s stomach, reports said. The driver wrestled with them before the pair managed to get away with $60.

Assistant City Prosecutor Kathy Thompson told Judge Elizabeth Kobly that Byrd has no criminal record.

Police are still looking for the other people involved in the robberies.