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YOUNGSTOWN -- A case involving a woman being tortured Sept. 20, 2021, and left on the East Side was scheduled for trial Wednesday, but Farren J. McClendon, 45, of East Judson Avenue, and then Janarvis L. Roberts, 28, of Cambridge Avenue, took plea deals, eliminating the trial.
An affidavit filed October 2021 in Youngs-town Municipal Court alleged Roberts committed unspeakable acts against a woman in a home on Cambridge Avenue on the South Side as McClendon watched.
McClendon pleaded guilty to reduced charges of abduction and having weapons while not allowed, and got a recommendation that he get five years in prison when he's sentenced Nov. 15.
McClendon's sentence will run at the same time as a federal sentence of 32 months he received in July for possession of firearms and ammunition in a related case.
Roberts pleaded guilty to all of the charges in his indictment -- kidnapping and felonious assault with gun specifications -- and got a recommendation that he spend eight to 10 1/2 years in prison. His sentencing also is Nov. 15. Roberts gets credit for 576 days spent in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.
Both men are in the Mahoning County jail, according to jail records.
Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court will make the final decision on sentences after he reads presentence investigation reports of the defendants' criminal history and background to be compiled by the Community Corrections Association of Youngstown.
YPD was joined by the FBI and SWAT teams when they used search warrants to investigate the homes of McClendon and Roberts on Sept. 30, 2021, on the South Side.
Youngstown police Capt. Jason Simon at the time said the teams were in place because of the "serious nature of the crime," but he would not say what type of crime.
It was later learned that Youngstown police were called to the 2000 block of Warwick Avenue on the East Side for a severely injured woman asking for help.
She said she was kidnapped from a home on the South Side, severely beaten and dumped in woods off of Nelson Avenue in the Sharon Line area on the East Side. She walked to a home on Warwick Avenue for help, she said. She was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for treatment.
On the day of the searches, Roberts was arrested at his house, where investigators removed bags of evidence. Roberts was initially charged with three counts of felonious assault and one count of kidnapping. He was held in the Mahoning County jail in lieu of $1 million bond.
McClendon turned himself in a short time later and was arraigned on three counts of complicity to felonious assault and one count of kidnapping. He was held in jail in lieu of $750,000 bond.
Roberts was later indicted on kidnapping and felonious assault, both with gun specifications; McClendon was indicted on kidnapping with a gun specification, felonious assault with a gun specification and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A 2022 hearing in the case included remarks by a lawyer for Roberts that the evidence obtained during the searches should be tossed out. Attorney Doug Bond said no evidence was given as to why investigators thought the crimes took place at Roberts' home on Cambridge Avenue. The judge refused to toss out the evidence.