Tuesday, December 26, 2017
NILES — Jonathan K. Smith, 37, of Fifth Avenue in Youngstown is being held in the Trumbull County jail in lieu of $25,000 bond after being arraigned today in Niles Municipal Court on aggravated robbery.
No plea was required on the felony charge, which carries a penalty of 11 years if convicted.
Smith was arrested at about 7 p.m. Saturday near the Giant Eagle store on East Market Street in Howland Township, where Niles police tracked him through a cell phone he's accused of stealing.
The 5:49 p.m. robbery was at the Boost Mobile store, 5855 Youngstown Road in Niles.
Police said a man wearing a stocking cap, dark, hooded sweatshirt and gray mask over his face ordered the Boost Mobile store clerk into the back room and brandished a handgun.
The suspect left the store on foot.
Smith is accused of taking cash and at least one cell phone, including a personal phone taken from someone in the store who had activated a tracking feature on it, police said.