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Three arrested in two separate chases over weekend
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man arrested Sunday afternoon after a foot chase on the South Side is free on $80,000 bond in a drug case that also violated his probation from a 2015 weapons case.
Antonio Crockett, 31, of Dogwood Lane, was one of two people arrested about 4:10 p.m. Sunday on the South Side after a short vehicle and foot chase.
The person he was arrested with, Jermaine Beverly, 28, of Market Street, was wanted on a warrant for failing to appear at an October preliminary hearing in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman after he was charged in September with selling heroin to someone undercover, according to reports.
Both men were arraigned in municipal court Monday. Crockett was given a bond of $22,500 on charges of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility, possession of marijuana and obstructing official business. Beverly was given a bond of $14,000 on four misdemeanor counts of possession of drugs
Reports said officer Mark Sember tried to pull over a car Beverly was driving for an improper turn. Instead of stopping, Beverly drove to a drive in the 500 block of Sherwood Avenue and he and Crockett, his passenger, ran out of the car.
Crockett was caught by officer Travis Sheely a short distance away. Sember managed to catch Beverly after jumping a fence in a nearby backyard. Reports said police found eight pills and 12 bags of marijuana on Beverly, who gave officers a false name. Reports said police did not know his real name until he was at the Mahoning County jail.
At the jail, police found out Beverly’s real name and a wallet with $980 inside fell out of his pants. When deputies searched Crockett, they found four bags of marijuana in his buttocks. Reports said Crockett told police: “I forgot they were there.”
In September, Beverly was arrested by Boardman police after reports said he sold heroin to someone who was posing undercover. He was free on bond when he skipped a preliminary hearing in his case in October, which led to a warrant for his arrest. In 2014, he was sentenced in common pleas court to 18 months in prison for carrying a concealed weapon. A request for early release in that case was denied.
Beverly asked for a court- appointed lawyer, saying his only source of income is from cutting hair “under the table” and giving tattoos. Magistrate Anthony Sertick, however, denied that request, saying he could not give a lawyer to someone who had a large amount of money and no reasonable explanation for it. City Prosecutor Dana Lantz also said police did not confiscate the cash and Beverly can get it back if he posts bond.
In March, Crockett was arrested after a home he was at was raided by members of the vice squad and Community Police Unit and drugs were found there. The March arrest also triggered a probation violation for Crockett, who was sentenced in 2015 in common pleas court to 36 months in prison after he entered guilty pleas to charges of carrying a concealed weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was granted early release, but his arrest in March triggered the violation. The violation was scheduled to be heard Monday in common pleas court.
Also arrested after a chase over the weekend was Damian Williams, 23, of Youngstown, whom police tried to pull over about 11:20 p.m. Saturday at Albert Street and Buckeye Court on the East Side for running a stop sign. Instead, he got on the Madison Avenue Expressway, then Interstate 680 before stopping at Salt Springs Road and Elbern Avenue on the West Side.
Reports said Williams told police he did not stop because he has a warrant from Liberty police on a traffic case. Police also found a scale in his car with a white residue on it, reports said. He was taken to the jail and was released Sunday, according to court records.
He was arraigned in municipal court on charges of fleeing and eluding and possession of drug paraphernalia. He remains free until his next court date Jan. 8.