Witness in Girard oficer’s killing sent to NEOCAP on probation violation
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Adam J. Fletcher, a witness to the shooting that killed Girard police officer Justin Leo on Oct. 21, was sentenced Tuesday to spend the next four to six months in the Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program.
The sentence was for probation violations dating back to April 24 – failing to report for two drug tests and testing positive for oxycodone, amphetamine and marijuana, the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department said.
The warrant on those violations was issued May 31 in common pleas court based on a report from the adult probation department.
Apparently, the first chance authorities had to arrest Fletcher, 34, on the warrant was the night of Leo’s killing, when Fletcher fled from the home on Indiana Avenue in Girard where the officer was killed. Police did not view Fletcher as a suspect in the case, only a witness.
Police located Fletcher a couple hours later and took him into custody, placing him in the county jail a few hours after that on the probation violation.
If Fletcher violates his probation again, he could get 18 months in prison, Judge Andrew Logan told him.
Fletcher pleaded guilty to the probation violation. He also tested positive for benzodiazepines and buprenorphine Oct. 23, after his arrest on the probation violation.
The probation violations did not relate to anything he did the night of the shooting, the probation department said. He has not been charged with anything related to Oct. 21.
Fletcher has had addresses on Tibbetts-Wick Road in Girard and on Glendola Avenue in Champion and was on probation because of a 2013 conviction for trespassing into a habitation where a person is likely to be present. He was placed on five years’ probation.
Leo, 31, was shot in the chest about 10:15 p.m. Oct. 21 while answering a domestic-violence call at 408 Indiana Ave. Leo died later at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
Jason D. Marble, 37, of 408 Indiana Ave., was the gunman who shot Leo. Another officer then shot and killed Marble at the scene. Marble’s girlfriend called police to the Indiana address by saying Marble was threatening to kill her.
Radio communications from the county 911 center that night indicated officers were asked to be on the lookout for Fletcher. Girard police had him in custody at 12:47 a.m. He was booked into the jail at 4:32 a.m. on the probation violation, where he remains.
NEOCAP provides cognitive-behavior assessments and programs.
A police report from the sheriff’s office says Fletcher was charged with burglary related to a Feb. 2, 2013, break-in at a home on state Route 534 in Southington Township.