Skeins found guilty

Skeins found guilty

WARREN

A Trumbull County jury deliberated nearly one full day before finding Gilbert E. Skeins Jr., 22, guilty Friday afternoon of rape and gross sexual imposition of a girl, now 6, in February 2016.

Skeins, of Niles, will be sentenced Jan. 31 and will get a sentence that will include the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

The girl’s father testified in the courtroom of Judge Andrew of common pleas court the girl told him Feb. 14 that Skeins had sexually assaulted her in two locations of her grandmother’s home.

The girl’s father said he and Skeins had been “almost best friends” for about three years before the incident. The girl and her siblings stayed overnight at their grandmother’s house two or three times per month, her father said. Skeins and his girlfriend lived with the girl’s grandmother.

Committee plans service, workshop

YOUNGSTOWN

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Planning Committee has two events scheduled to commemorate the life and work of the civil-rights leader.

A community worship service will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Greater Friendship Baptist Church, 646 Lakewood Ave. Featured speaker will be Minister DeVante Hudson, a Youngstown native, who is a student ministries intern at New Mercies Christian Church, Lilburn, Ga.

On Monday, a community workshop to address the issues of institutionalized racism will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon at First Presbyterian Church, 201 Wick Ave. Both events are free.

Six-gun salute set

CLEVELAND

This afternoon a six-gun salute will honor the six people who died when their plane went down over Lake Erie on Dec. 29.

Six shots will be fired between noon and 1 p.m. from the USS Cod, a former U.S. Navy vessel and current museum ship in Cleveland. The salute will honor the four members of the Fleming family, as well as their two neighbors, Brian and Megan Casey, who were also on board.

Roundtable Sunday

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Cleveland, D-Ohio, will convene at 2 p.m. Sunday roundtable at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, 1044 Belmont Ave., to discuss actions by Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act – a move he said could cause up to 900,000 Ohioans to lose their health insurance.

Brown will be joined by leadership from Mercy Health, Akron Children’s Hospital and the Mahoning and Trumbull County mental health and recovery boards, who will outline their views concerning the consequences of repeal for the Mahoning Valley patients they serve. Brown will also be joined by patients who he said will face higher medical costs and potential loss of coverage.

Man sentenced

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown man was sentenced to one year behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of gross sexual imposition.According to 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, Kenneth McGuire Jr., 64, pleaded guilty to the charge in October after being accused of having sexual contact with a 16-year-old. The crime occurred in Youngstown in September 2013. Along with serving one year in the penitentiary, McGuire is also required to register as a sex offender.

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