WARREN — A Youngstown man accused of a home invasion burglary in Champion and more charges of violence in Mahoning County is defending himself this week in front of a Trumbull County jury.

Michael A. Rivers, 39, of Potomac Avenue, Youngstown, tried to end the trial twice with two motions that were overruled by Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay on Thursday.

Rivers asked for a mistrial because during a break, he said several jurors may have saw him shackled, which may have prejudiced them. McKay denied that motion as well as River’s bid to have the charges dismissed because he claimed the first two state witnesses were lying.

“You have not shown any discrepancies in their testimonies,” McKay told Rivers.

Rivers is charged with aggravated burglary and two counts of having weapons as a convicted felon.

Testimony will continue today during cross-examination of a woman who was in the Champion duplex Rivers was accused of breaking into on March 25, 2020.

Also testifying was Rivers’ ex-girlfriend, who is the mother of his 4-year-old daughter.

The ex-girlfriend, under cross examination by Rivers, testified she did not file charges against him and was forced to testify through subpoena.

Rivers, during cross examination, continually tried to find inconsistencies in the two women’s testimonies, but assistant prosecutor Gabriel Wildman continually objected because the defendant was making comments instead of asking questions. Wildman also complained about the time Rivers took in between questions.

McKay also had to admonish Rivers when he took time to try to show inconsistencies in the dates of both women’s written and oral statements to police and victim impact statements.

“That is irrelevant,” McKay said noting that the dates don’t matter, it is what the women wrote or said.

Wildman said Rivers at the final pretrial rejected a plea deal of serving five years. If found guilty, Rivers could be looking at a maximum sentence of 20 to 23 1/2 years.

The burglary count carries a gun specification that calls for mandatory three years in prison.

“Like all defendants — whether represented by counsel or not — we will make sure he gets a fair trial,” Wildman said during jury selection.

Members of the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Fugitive Task Force arrested Rivers after he was found in late November 2021 at a trailer park in North Jackson.

Testimony showed that Rivers appeared in the women’s bedroom holding two guns and the women’s cellphones in his hands.

Champion and Bazetta officers responded and one woman said she woke up after hearing something inside her home and found the man, identified as Rivers, standing over the bed.

The women testified the guns were theirs and Rivers must have been in the house for hours looking for them. One of the women testified she had heard plastic rustling.

Testimony showed the woman and her child were escorted out of the house while officers searched the house for the suspect. Rivers was found hiding up against the wall in a closet in another bedroom, the one where the child had been sleeping.

Officers could not find any forced entry, and the woman testified they were unsure how the man got into the residence. However, the prosecution came up with a photo of mud marks outside a window of the duplex, but Rivers disputed that because he said officers didn’t find any of his fingerprints or mud on the inside room.

MAHONING CASE

In the Mahoning County case, Rivers is accused of attacking two women about 5:50 a.m. May 4, 2021, in a driveway in the 4600 block of Burkey Road in Austintown. Reports said one woman was identified as Rivers’ ex-girlfriend and was in the driver’s seat of the car. Another woman, the mother of Rivers’ children, was a passenger.

According to reports, Rivers allegedly hit the driver in the back of the head several times. The report stated the man was upset because the two women were together.

As the fight continued, one of the women pulled a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol that Rivers managed to get away from her. He took the gun and fled, the report states, jumping a fence. Police later found the holster for the gun but not the firearm.

In the case before Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Donofrio, Rivers is charged with aggravated robbery, two counts of felonious assault, having weapons under restriction and grand theft. A jury trial before Donofrio is scheduled for March 20, 2023.

Rivers had posted a $37,500 bond in the Mahoning County case, but he is being held in the Trumbull County lockup without bond.