Arrest warrants issued for 2 who failed to testify
1/31/2008A Lucas County Common Pleas Court judge yesterday issued arrest warrants for two witnesses who failed to show up on the first day of a trial.
Judge Ruth Ann Franks issued the order after Mikaela Buck, 18, of 6741 Lincoln Green, Holland, and Katie Pezan, 18, of 616 Highland Creek Ct., Holland, both of whom had been subpoenaed to testify, failed to appear in court.
The two women were scheduled to be witnesses for the state in its case against Monta Price, 18, of 1002 Greenhills Rd., who was charged with felonious assault and aggravated robbery for an Aug. 16 incident in Sleepy Hollow Park at Dorr Street and Richards Road.
Mr. Price and a co-defendant, Ira Brown, 19, are accused of robbing Ricky Burk, 47, of Wauseon, and a female companion about 9:45 p.m. in the park. Mr. Burk was shot twice in the abdomen with a handgun, police said.
Brown pleaded guilty Oct. 18 to robbery and was sentenced to four years in prison.
A jury was selected yesterday for Mr. Price's trial, which was continued until Monday because the witnesses failed to appear.
A man arrested Saturday for robbing a pizza delivery driver with a machete was indicted yesterday by a Lucas County grand jury on several robbery charges.
James Bryant, 32, of 1212 Liberty St., Apt. B, is charged with three counts of robbery, two counts of aggravated robbery, and one count of kidnapping. He was in the county jail in lieu of a $150,000 bond.
Mr. Bryant was charged in several robberies, including the robbery of Ryan Derrick, 23, who was delivering pizzas to the Liberty address Jan. 17.
Authorities said Mr. Derrick was grabbed, taken into the apartment, and threatened with the machete. One man tied his arms and legs with wire cord, while another searched through his wallet. They got about $30. Mr. Derrick was taken into a bedroom to count to 100 while the men fled, police said.
The charges against Mr. Bryant include at least two other robberies with a machete of pizza delivery drivers.
FINDLAY - A woman from rural Arcadia, Ohio, who is charged with killing her mother and trying to kill her partner was ordered yesterday to undergo a second psychiatric exam.
Judge Reginald Routson of Hancock County Common Pleas Court granted a motion by county Prosecutor Mark Miller that Linda Brown, 38, undergo a second exam.
The first evaluation determined she was competent to stand trial, but that she was under a severe mental defect at the time of her mother's death.
Ms. Brown is charged with aggravated murder in the June 28 slaying of Winifred Brown, 75, and attempted murder for attacking Jill Darnell, 49, in the Cass Township home that the three women shared.
BOWLING GREEN - The Wood County commissioners will hold a public hearing at 10 a.m. today in the County Office Building on Wood County Hospital's plan to issue $47 million in bonds for an upcoming expansion.
The hospital plans to break ground in March on a $40 million, 100,000-square-foot addition that includes 56 private-patient rooms, a new operating area, an expanded emergency department, and a chapel.
The $47 million in hospital facilities revenue bonds includes the refinancing of $7 million in outstanding debt as well as the new project, which is in the design phase.
Kristy Muir, county budget director, said the county doesn't bear any financial responsibility for the bonds.
Commissioner Jim Carter is expected to abstain from the vote because he is on the hospital's board of trustees.