Bond revoked for man arrested on gun charge

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Bond was revoked for a man charged with a drug offense, who once served a prison sentence for his role in the death of a 4-year-old boy, after he was arrested on a weapons charge Friday by U.S. marshals looking for a man from Georgia.

Judge Maureen Sweeney in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday revoked the bond for Christopher Hill, 37, who was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of drugs after marshals Friday morning were at a New York Avenue home looking for Ladarryl Crowder, 30, who had a warrant out of Georgia for terroristic threats.

An arrest report for Hill said marshals found a 9 mm pistol and a bag of suspected cocaine on a deflated air mattress in the home.

Hill is barred from having a firearm because of a 1999 conviction for involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 16, 1998, death of Luis Cruz, 4, of Dupont Avenue.

Luis was killed after he was shot by gunmen who fired into his apartment building looking for another resident who wasn’t there. He was killed by a bullet that went through two walls before striking him.

At the time of the crime, Hill was 17, but was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to the reduced charge.

Two brothers, Charles Edwards and Lamar McGary, both of Liberty, who were 17 and 19 at the time, respectively, were each charged with murder, but they also pleaded guilty to reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter and were each sentenced to eight years in prison.

A Stansbury Drive teen who was 15 at the time, Fernando Lampkins, also pleaded guilty in juvenile court and was sentenced to five years in juvenile detention.

A county grand jury on March 1 indicted Hill on charges of possession of cocaine with a forfeiture specification and possession of drug paraphernalia after a February arrest in Youngstown.

He was able to post bond after his arraignment in that case, and that bond was continued when his case was bound over to common pleas court and he was indicted.

Judge Renee DiSalvo set his bond on the new charges at $10,000 during his arraignment Monday in municipal court.