Execution date set

Execution date set

YOUNGSTOWN

The Ohio Supreme Court this week set an execution date of Jan. 10, 2024, for a Struthers man convicted of the 1997 murder of a city bar owner.

Scott A. Group, 54, has been on death row since his 1999 conviction in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the January 1997 murder of Robert Lozier, who owned the Downtown Bar.

Group is accused of killing Lozier and taking $1,000 from him. The jury recommended he be sentenced to death.

Lozier’s wife, Sandra, was shot in the neck and temple but survived. Before losing consciousness, Sandra used her own blood to write “Ohio Wine” on the floor of the store as a clue for police.

Group was a delivery man for Ohio Wine at the time.

YSU commencement

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University Spring Commencement will be today at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at Beeghly Center on the YSU campus.

At 9:30 a.m., degrees will be presented to graduates of the Williamson College of Business Administration, the Beeghly College of Education and the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

At 2:30 p.m., graduates of the Cliffe College of Creative Arts and Communication, the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences receive their degrees.

Hundreds of students will receive associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at the ceremonies. YSU alumni Don Lewis, president of Essity’s Professional Hygiene business, and Sam Grooms, chief executive officer of Hy-Tek Material Handling, will be awarded honorary degrees. Graduates Kyla Williams of Cincinnati and Gulay Yazar of Canfield also will speak.

Cops find gun

CAMPBELL

Police Thursday afternoon found a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun during a traffic stop about 4 p.m. at Murray and Jackson streets.

Officers pulled a car over for running a stop sign and asked the driver and passenger to step out to search the car because it smelled like marijuana. As officers searched Brielan Wallace, 26, of Jean Street, they felt the grip of a handgun in his waistband, reports said.

Reports said police then pulled the gun out of Wallace’s pants.

Officers also found a painkiller on the seat where Wallace was sitting. He was booked into the Mahoning County jail on charges of carrying concealed weapons, being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of drugs. The driver was given a traffic citation and released.

Shooting death probe

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are searching for any clues after a man in his 50s died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital shortly after he was shot about 9:30 p.m. Thursday at Wirt Street and Crandall Avenue.

Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn said the man was walking from a store with his cousin when the cousin heard a popping sound and saw the victim had been shot.

The man was not breathing when police arrived but had a faint pulse. Police searched the area where the man was found but came up with hardly any evidence.

The Mahoning County Coroner’s Office will release the man’s name when his family is notified. His death is the ninth homicide this year. In 2018, Youngstown had 26 homicides.

Bond set in shooting

YOUNGSTOWN

Bond was set at $50,000 Friday in municipal court for a 41-year-old man accused of wounding a teen Wednesday at a Western Reserve Transit Authority bus stop.

Hector Perez was arraigned before Judge Carla Baldwin on a charge of felonious assault. Perez was arrested about 9:45 a.m. Thursday at a home on Manhattan Avenue.

Reports said Perez had been arguing with the victim and her mother and shot at them from both a bicycle and a car. The victim was wounded in the shoulder.

Woman identified

WARREN

The Trumbull County Coroner’s office has identified the woman who died after being struck by a train Wednesday night as Michelle Williams, 50, of North Jackson and Newton Falls.

There is not yet a ruling on her cause and manner of death, but there are no signs of foul play, said Becky Bluedorn, a coroner’s investigator. Williams was killed in the area of Newton Falls Bailey Road and Miller Graber Road in Newton Township about 11 p.m.

The county 911 center received a phone call at 11:01 p.m. saying a pedestrian may have been struck by a train. The body was found about 11:30 p.m.

Rulli bill approved

COLUMBUS

A bill sponsored by state Sen. Michael Rulli to permit local candidates to file campaign reports electronically was approved by the Senate. It goes to the Ohio House for consideration.

The bill would remove the paper-only filing requirements for individuals who file with local elections boards. It also requires the Ohio secretary of state to make the information in those electronic statements available online.

All the information would then be maintained in a central database. The goal is to streamline filing requirements for all candidates, and eliminate the actual paper trail while boosting transparency, said Rulli, of Salem, R-33rd.

Inmate awaits trial

YOUNGSTOWN

A Northeast Ohio Correctional Center inmate stabbed repeatedly Tuesday is awaiting trial for allegedly threatening U.S. representatives.

NEOCC inmate David White stabbed inmate Carlos Bayon, 63, several times on his head and limbs with a metal shank, according to a city police report. Bayon was treated at a hospital.

Bayon is in the custody of New York’s U.S. Marshals and is being held in the facility for allegedly threatening gun violence against Congress members from Washington and Louisiana.

Police found a large amount of ammunition, receipts for firearms, including an assault rifle, and several books on guns and explosives, according to The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

The U.S. District Attorney for the Western District of New York has moved to set a trial date in Bayon’s case.