Staff photo / Ed Runyan Sammy F. Anderson Jr. is seen prior to the start of jury selection Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Opening statements and testimony in Anderson’s trial on two counts of felonious assault and one count of having weapons while under disability are set for this morning.

YOUNGSTOWN — Sammy F. Anderson Jr., 28, of New Road, is set for trial this morning in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on two counts of felonious assault and one count of having weapons while under disability for incidents June 15, 2023, and Sept. 14, 2023, involving the same woman.

Having weapons under disability is a charge accusing someone of possessing weapons while not allowed as a result of an earlier criminal conviction. Anderson has been in the Mahoning County jail since Nov. 14, according to jail records.

A jury was selected Monday morning, and opening statements and first witnesses are expected this morning before Judge Anthony Donofrio.

If Anderson is convicted, he could get about 20 years in prison.

In the June incident, Anderson is accused of punching a woman in the face multiple times while they were in a car together in Youngstown, according to a police report.

When an officer interviewed her, she had a bad swollen face and forehead. She was “covered in blood about her face and was bleeding from the mouth and left ear,” the report states.

The woman said she and Anderson went to her sister’s house on the South Side and Anderson got angry for no reason, which she said he had done before.

She said when they left the home, Anderson “became enraged,” driving around the South Side, “punching (the woman) as hard as he could while he drove.” She said he made “full fist strikes to her head, face and ribs while Mr. Anderson drove.”

After about 15 minutes, he opened her car door at an East Side apartment complex and demanded that she get out. He then threw her cell phone and drove off in her car. She found her phone and walked a bit, then called 911, a report states.

The woman suffered a “broken cheek bone, a broken nose, and various parts of her body required stitches,” according to criminal charges filed in Youngstown Municipal Court.

The woman told police she has made reports for other violent attacks by Anderson but never followed through with filing charges. The woman was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

In the other incident, which involved the same victim, officers were called at 2:06 p.m. Sept. 15 to East Evergreen Avenue to arrest Anderson on an active warrant for felonious assault.

Officers found Anderson in the home and took him into custody. The felonious assault allegation in that case happened the day before, according to Anderson’s indictment.

In that instance, Anderson is accused of “knowingly causing serious harm to another person.”