METRO DIGEST | Driver injured in crash facing charges

Driver injured in crash facing charges

WARREN

Mark A. Meadows, 45, of state Route 88, Garrettsville, who was seriously injured in a crash Wednesday afternoon on the state Route 5 Bypass eastbound near East Market Street, has been charged with felony drunken driving.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol filed the charge Thursday in Warren Municipal Court. Meadows’ arraignment is set for 8:30 a.m. May 5.

The patrol said Meadows’ pickup truck experienced a tire blowout and left the road on the left, hitting a tree and catching on fire.

A medical helicopter landed on the highway and took Meadows to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he remains. The injuries were to his lower body.

The drunken-driving charge is Meadows’ 10th such offense, the patrol said. He was sentenced to four years in prison in June 2011 for a felony drunken-driving offense, according to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court records.

Police search for robbery suspect with bad handwriting

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said a robber’s note Wednesday at a South Side store was written so badly the clerk had to hand it back to the robber and have the robber read it back to him.

Police were called about 7:30 p.m. to the 2224 Market St. Dollar General where employees said a man handed a note to the clerk “with bad handwriting on it.”

The clerk gave the note back to the robber who read it, then the clerk opened the cash register and gave the robber money and a pack of cigarettes. Police searched the area for the robber but could not find him.

Father finds son dead of overdose

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said a Fithian Street man went to get gas Wednesday evening and came back to find his 30-year-old son dead of a heroin overdose.

Police found the man dead in a bedroom. On a dresser police found a plate glass with three lines of suspected heroin on it with one line appearing to be snorted and a capped needle.

Reports said the man told them his son had been struggling with a heroin addiction for years.

Man robbed of $200

YOUNGSTOWN

Reports said a 65-year-old man found early Thursday lying in the middle of a South Side street was robbed of $200 cash and taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Officers were called to 3:15 a.m. to the 600 block of Lakewood Avenue for a report of a fight in the street and found the man lying there, reports said. Reports said the man told officers he was walking from the store with his “significant other” when three men pushed him down on the street and took his wallet, which had a credit card and $200 cash.

Food giveaway

YOUNGSTOWN

Price Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, 920 Dryden Ave., will have a produce and food bag giveaway from 9 to 11 a.m. today. Proper identification is required. Recipients must bring containers.

More Digest on A10