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YOUNGSTOWN -- Testimony began Thursday in the trial of three men charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
The first two people to the witness stand in the courtroom of Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Maureen Sweeney were a 911 dispatcher and a prisoner in a halfway house, who rescued the victim who was lying on Interstate 680, trussed in duct tape.
Stephen Johnson, 30; Kevin A. Clinkscale, 36; and Keilan Clinkscale, 33; are the defendants in the case which involved a man being robbed of $500 at gunpoint on Dec. 28, 2017, at a North Side home and then bound with duct tape and tossed into the back seat of a car.
The victim, identified in court testimony as Senator Johnson, escaped by jumping out of the moving car, reports state.
Larry D. Schulte III, who at the time was living in a CCA halfway house, testified that he was on his way back from a narcotics anonymous meeting, riding in a pickup driven by another CCA inmate. Schulte said they came upon something large in the roadway as they headed south on I-680.
"We thought it was a tree trunk until it started to move," Schulte testified.
He said he jumped out to come to the aid of the victim who was rolling out of the roadway away from oncoming traffic. The man was still bound but his pants were down to his knees when Schulte reached him.
"It took some time to break the duct tape. He was wrapped up like a mummy," he said.
Schulte said others were in cars parked on the berm of I-680 watching the incident.
"It's something that it took two men who were prisoners that had to stop and help this man," Schulte said.
Robert Norman, 911 director for the Youngstown Police Department, also testified about the calls received about a man lying in the middle of I-680 on that cold evening. Prosecutors played the audio recording of the calls, one of which came from Schulte.
Prosecutors said a total of five witnesses are expected to testify for the state. Testimony is expected to continue today.
All three defendants, who each gave a Coronado Street address at the time of their indictment in 2018, face charges of aggravated robbery and kidnapping, both first-degree felonies that carry potential sentences of up to 16 years in prison. Kevin A. Clinksdale faces an addition charge of having weapons under restrictions.
Despite the case being four years old, prosecutors just last November disclosed that they discovered that evidence had not been turned over to the defense, which includes four attorneys.