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WARREN -- A former Liberty woman -- who in March 2020 was indicted on sex charges involving a 3-year-old and was brought back to face the charges from a federal prison in Arizona -- is scheduled to go on trial Oct. 25 before Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice.
But first, Candis Wynn, 34, formerly of Lucretia Drive, Liberty, has to undergo a psychological evaluation before Dr. Thomas Gazley to evaluate the defendant's claims of being not guilty by reason of insanity. After the interview, which is scheduled for this week, Rice is expected to rule on July 29 whether Wynn is competent to stand trial.
At a status conference hearing Thursday, Rice told attorneys he wants this case off his docket by the end of the year and then scheduled the fall trial date.
Wynn's attorney, Jeffrey Goodman, filed several motions in April, holding up the proceedings. There was some discussion whether Goodman would be allowed to be with Wynn during her interview with Gazley but Rice nixed that idea, saying she had to be alone to face the clinical psychologist.
Wynn's state charges include three counts of rape that carry possible life sentences, one count of gross sexual imposition, six counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, four counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor and four counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance.
Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman and his office had been working with federal officials for months to bring back Wynn to face the local charges.
Wynn was given a 25-year federal sentence in 2019 after being found guilty of sexual exploitation of children, receipt and distribution of visual depiction of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possession of child pornography. That case, investigated by members of the Liberty Police Department, the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office, the county prosecutor's office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, involved Wynn and another man allegedly trading images of child pornography via cellphones.
In the local case, Wynn is accused of having sexual conduct with a child who was 3 years old at the time as part of the late 2018 and early 2019 offenses.
A Liberty police report on July 17, 2018, reported that a 2-year-old girl was standing outside of the Lucretia Drive home about 8 p.m. wearing only a diaper. No one was home at the time. The report states the mother of the child was identified as Wynn. She was charged with child endangering, later convicted in Girard Municipal Court, fined and credited for serving 21 days in jail.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com