Warren police go over annual report

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

There were six homicides in Warren in 2018, down from 12 the previous year, but so far none have resulted in criminal charges, according to the 2018 police department annual report.

Capt. Rob Massucci, head of the detective bureau, says the information his detectives receive suggest most of the killings occur between two people who have “unfinished business.”

“A lot of them are retribution for something that happened along the way,” Massucci said.

The disputes typically center on theft, talking to police or rivalries over a love interest, he added.

Massucci said the department learns a lot about the homicides it investigates, but so far none of the 2018 cases have resulted in charges.

“You need physical evidence and witnesses,” he said.

The number of overdose deaths and homicides appears to be on the rise again this year – five homicides in the first five months of this year and a sizable increase in overdose deaths compared with 2018. As of April 10, the county was averaging about 10 overdose deaths per month.

In other crime categories, robberies fell from 125 to 78 in 2018, and motor vehicle thefts fell from 122 to 83.

Forcible rapes rose from 37 to 43.

The annual report says Market Street experienced the most crashes in 2018 with 118, followed by Youngstown Road with 76, Parkman Road with 44, Tod Avenue with 39 and Elm Road with 34.

Warren had a crash fatality in 2018, though few people knew about it until recently.

Cynthia L. Korpon, 54, of Youngstown-Warren Road, died Aug. 22 in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital four days after being injured in a motorcycle accident late Aug. 18 at the Youngstown Road-Belvedere Avenue intersection.

She was a passenger on a motorcycle driven by Timothy J. Sanders, 49, of the same Youngstown Road address when Sanders lost control at 11:50 p.m. and the motorcycle went down.

Sanders pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide April 18 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in the death and will be sentenced Thursday. He could get up to three years in prison and suspension of his driver’s license for life.

The number of child-abuse and child-endangering charges has risen each of the last three years – from 35 in 2016 to 54 in 2017 to 58 in 2018.

The number of juveniles charged with a crime also rose each of the last three years – from 75 in 2016 to 94 in 2017 and 111 in 2018.

The department hired 12 new officers in 2018, bringing its numbers up to 70, the number city officials promised when it sold an income-tax increase to voters in 2016.

Police Chief Eric Merkel said having more officers patrolling city streets has enabled the department to conduct more “discretionary policing,” which includes things such as traffic enforcement, illegal parking and citations for having junk cars in yards.