Friday, June 23, 2017
By Ed Runyan
NEWTON FALLS
Judge Phillip Vigorito set bond at $1 million Thursday during the arraignment for Austin T. Burke of Bristolville, charged in the murder of Brandon Sample of Warren.
Burke was not asked to enter a plea in Newton Falls Municipal Court. Though a preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, it’s also possible Burke will be indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury before that and appear in common pleas court instead.
Burke, 18, of Miller South Road, also appeared Wednesday in Central District Court on misdemeanor charges of obstructing official business and failure to disclose personal information.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and Judge Thomas Campbell set bond at $1,000.
Those charges were filed by Cortland police, apparently in relation to the search police from several agencies conducted Tuesday night for Burke after the Pizza Joe’s restaurant on West Main Street in Cortland was robbed by a man with a gun and a mask at 10:12 p.m.
Burke was arrested shortly after that at an apartment across the street from the pizza shop.
Investigators and a canine team from the Warren Police Department and officers from other departments were in Cortland looking for Burke at the time.
Warren detectives had been alerted that Burke might be in Cortland. Warren police had filed the murder charge earlier that day and were attempting to arrest him.
Cortland police say they “highly suspect” that Burke also committed the pizza- store robbery but have not charged him.
Burke is charged with killing Sample, 22, of Garfield Drive Northeast, who died of a gunshot wound to the head. Sample’s body was found in a remote area of Bristol Township last Thursday.
Meanwhile, a 2014 Girard police report says Burke was one of four males charged in a Dec. 4, 2014, burglary at a home on East Main Street in Girard in which nine firearms and other items were stolen.
Police said the rear door of the kitchen had been kicked in, and the home had been ransacked.
In addition to Burke, who was then 16, the report says one other juvenile and two adults were charged with the burglary. They were a boy, 14, from Girard; a man, 25, of Warren; and a man, 21, of Girard.
According to a sheriff’s report from Dec. 5, 2014, Burke was arrested and taken to the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center in the case, but Scott Bombeck, juvenile court administrator, said he could not provide any information regarding Burke.
Two friends of Burke who attended his hearing Thursday said Burke was released from juvenile detention in December, having served about two years there for the burglary.
Darien Chapman of Newton Falls said he has been a friend of Burke’s since Burke was 12. “He wouldn’t do that,” Chapman said of the murder charge.
“He has a good heart,” added Brittani Merten of Newton Falls, another friend. A third friend said Burke would not kill someone “unless he was being threatened.”
A check of area courts indicates that Burke was charged by Springfield Township police with felony theft in a Feb. 2 incident in the township. The case is pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Springfield Township police said they could not provide a police report on the incident that produced the charges.