New Yorker guilty in 2 robberies
12/5/2000A New York man pleaded guilty in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to two counts of aggravated robbery, one of which resulted in a shootout at an after-hours gambling club that left his alleged accomplice dead.
Donnell Warner, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., entered the pleas yesterday. Judge James Bates set sentencing for Dec. 19.
Warner was with Staci Cedeno, 39, of Fernwood Avenue on Aug. 28 when she allegedly robbed people at the club in the 3100 block of North Detroit Avenue.
Michael Narges, an assistant county prosecutor, said Cedeno had lost about $400 while gambling and reportedly left the room where craps was being played but returned with a handgun. She took money from the craps table and several others in the club, but Taurean Smith, 17, of the 1100 block of Fernwood, did not comply, and also pulled out a handgun police said.
Several shots were fired, and young Smith was shot in the leg. Cedeno died of five wounds predominantly to her midsection.
No one else has been charged in connection with the incident.
In addition to the robbery of the gambling club, Warner pleaded guilty to robbing a woman in her home that night.
He could be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison.