Staff photo / Ed Runyan Nicholas Kowal, 34, of Winchester Avenue in Youngstown, pleaded guilty to one count of rape Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison.

YOUNGSTOWN — Nicholas Kowal, 34, of Winchester Avenue was sentenced to a mandatory 10 years to life in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to one count of rape involving a child who was less than 13 years of age when the offense took place last October.

An additional count of rape and one count of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles was dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea to the first rape charge.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin sentenced Kowal to the only sentence he could give for the offense.

ALLEGED KILLER

Durkin also held a “continued commitment” hearing Thursday for Samuel Legg III, 55, who is being treated in Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare in Columbus as a result of being charged with a 1992 murder at a former Austintown truck stop. Durkin found Legg not competent to stand trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in 2020.

Thursday’s hearing was held to determine what type of supervision he should have for the next two years. Durkin said the court received a May 1, 2025, report written by Dr. Amanda Conn at the Central Ohio Behavioral Healthcare Center that provided details on Legg’s mental health.

Durkin noted that Legg’s attorney, Mark Lavelle, was present for the hearing, as well as Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Anisa Modarelli and others, but Legg refused to appear for the hearing.

The judge said he found that based on the report, Legg has a severe mental illness, “schizoaffective disorder, characterized by substantial deficits in thought, mood, perception and behavior” and he “remains a mentally ill person subject to hospitalization by a court order.”

Legg “represents substantial risks of physical harm to himself and others and he would benefit from and is in need of treatment in a hospital for that mental illness,” Durkin said. He ordered that Legg should remain at the same facility.

Legg, a former truck driver, was charged with committing a murder Austintown and also was accused of three other killings in Ohio and Illinois. In Austintown, he was accused of killing Sharon Kedzierski of Florida. Authorities could not identify the badly beaten body of Kedzierski, 43, in 1992, but did so 25 years — in 2017 — using DNA.

ROBBERIES

In another case Thursday, Shane T. Adams, 33, of Austintown pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and will be sentenced at 10:30 a.m. July 9. County Assistant Prosecutor Katherine Jones said prosecutors are recommending that Adams get 3 to 4 1/2 years in prison. Judge Anthony D’Apolito will hand down the sentence.

The convictions are for Jan. 3 robberies at gas stations in Canfield and Austintown.

According to a Canfield Police report, an officer reviewing calls from elsewhere in the county at the start of his shift noticed a Shell gas station in Austintown robbery and started heading toward Canfield’s Shell station on East Main Street.

While en route, he saw a slender man wearing dark clothing sprinting from the Shell gas station toward a former Perkins restaurant, where a Chevrolet Trailblazer was parked. An off-duty officer confirmed the gas station was robbed, and several Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers became involved, the report states.

The Canfield officer initiated a traffic stop on the SUV, but it only stopped momentarily. Then a chase at 50 to 60 mph ensued, with the Trailblazer running a red light and passing another vehicle and an ODOT salt truck, the report states. The SUV got away.

A Youngstown police report states that officers were told to meet up with state troopers near East Pasadena Avenue on Youngstown’s South Side about 7 a.m. that day to look for a black 2023 Chevrolet Trailblazer believed to be connected to four robberies across Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Officers found the SUV at Powersdale and Cameron avenues, where state troopers advised they had one man in custody.

The Canfield report stated that its officer found Tylin J. Fairchild, 31, of Youngstown, a co-defendant of Adams, in the back of an ambulance. Adams also was in custody and was transported back to Canfield’s police station.

Additional details on the Austintown robbery were not available.

SENTENCE FOR THREE CASES

Jaquan Mixon, 25, of Republic Avenue was sentenced to 7 to 8 1/2 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty before Durkin to charges in three separate cases.

In one case, Mixon pleaded guilty to improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation and felonious assault, both with firearm specifications.

In another case, Mixon pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a fentanyl related compound. He also pleaded guilty in a third case, but the details were not available.

DRUGS PLEA

Meanwhile, Robin Shomo, 44, pleaded guilty Thursday to heroin possession and possession of a fentanyl related compound, and Judge Maureen Sweeney sentenced him to 4 to 6 years in prison.

His charges were filed by the Beaver Township Police Department, according to court records. His offenses were Feb. 2, according to his indictments.