YOUNGSTOWN — Prosecutors said Wednesday in opening statements in the Stacie A. Gilmore kidnapping and child endangering trial that Gilmore, 51, of Youngstown used zip ties, extension cords and pipes to torture and cruelly abuse a boy starting when he was 5 years old.

“This was happening regularly until he was taken out of her (care) at 11 years old,” Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlyn Andrews said.

Prosecutors presented all of their witnesses Wednesday and rested their case at the end of the day. Gilmore’s attorney, James Lanzo, is expected to present witnesses this morning. The case is being heard by Judge Andrew Logan, a retired former Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge. He is handling the case on behalf of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio.

Gilmore was indicted in October 2023 on kidnapping, felony child endangering, and misdemeanor child endangering and domestic violence. Gilmore is accused of committing the offenses from August 2016 through May of 2023.

Andrews said Gilmore’s actions “went far beyond what is appropriate in disciplining a child. She went far beyond what is just typical abuse. This was full on torture. This was inflicting serious pain.”

The kidnapping charge stems from allegations that from the time the boy was 5, Gilmore would “zip tie” the boy. “And while he was tied up, she would hit him with these objects, and she would abuse him.”

Among those expected to testify, Andrews said, was the boy’s stepgrandmother, who took over the care of the boy after the allegations against Gilmore arose.

Two investigators for the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office were on the witness list, as were two workers at the Child Advocacy Center at Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman, who were involved in the examination and interviewing of the boy regarding the allegations.

Lanzo said in his opening statement to the jury that the boy in this case “did not want to stay in Stacie’s house, and I don’t blame him. You’re not going to blame him.

“Stacie is overprotective. She doesn’t want to expose him to the evils of the world. She doesn’t want (him) to go to a regular school. She wants to homeschool. She doesn’t want (him) exposed to the internet. She doesn’t want her child exposed to television.

“Stacie is also an eccentric, and she is also a bit of a hoarder. There is nothing that is thrown away, really, in the house. Stacie is saving it for repurposing, later use. She is a bit of a crafter. She makes artwork. She does nails, things of that nature.”

He continued, saying that because Gilmore did not have a lot of money, the boy did not have “a lot of things,” and the boy “was not allowed to do a lot of the things a typical 11-year-old wanted to do,” Lanzo said.

It was not possible to shield him from the world, Lanzo said. He was creative and smart and knew that Gilmore used zip ties “for her crafting and nails,” Lanzo said. The boy said he was “tied up with zip ties.” He knew that there was “junk everywhere in (the) house. So what does (the boy) say he was beat with? Junk, an extension cord, a copper pipe, a broken broom stick.”

Lanzo said the boy “didn’t want to be there, so (he) figured out a way not to be there.”

Lanzo said he understands why the boy did not want to be there. “But it is not because my client abused this child. It is not because she tied him up and beat him.” Adding, “It didn’t happen.”

The first witness was Mahoning County Children’s Services Supervisor Taylor Kutsch.

She testified that she became involved in this case in May 2023 when a referral came to CSB of the boy running away and allegations of Gilmore physically abusing him with pipes and being tied up.

Photos were taken of the boy the day he was interviewed, and they showed a scar along his left eye, “numerous marks along his arms” and “circular and linear” marks across his chest. “On his back is where the most significant marks” were, she said.

Various photos were shown. One photo of the boy’s back showed what Kitsch called a half circle or “loops.” She described one photo of the boy’s arm showing “bruising and also scratches and other little dotted marks across his arm.”

There was bruising near his stomach and “circular marks across his belly,” she said.

Andrews asked Kutsch to describe what Kutch considers, based on her training, “appropriate parental discipline.”

Kutsch said parents are asked to “refrain from physical discipline. However, if you do choose to utilize physical discipline, we ask that you use an open hand, no fists, no punching and on a nonsensitive area.”

She said “that means either a hit on the butt, a smack to the hands, and to never use objects because with objects you don’t know the force you are hitting somebody with,” she said.

When asked, Kutsch said the injuries she saw on the boy were not “appropriate parental discipline.” She said appropriate physical discipline would be a spanking with the hand that left a red mark “a little bit. In a few seconds, that would go away.”

When it leaves “lasting” marks, scarring or injury or harm to the child, that is excessive, Kutsch said. When asked if the injuries on the boy were significant, Kutsch said yes.

When Lanzo cross-examined Kutsch, he asked her to look at the bruising and other marks on the arm of the boy depicted in the photos and asked if she was aware that there were several dogs in the home where the boy stayed. She said she knew there were dogs but did not know how large they were.

“And you are aware that (the boy) played with the dogs all the time,” Lanzo asked. She responded that the boy “loved his dogs. Yes.”

She agreed that the boy had run away “a bunch of times.” And she agreed that one reason a child might run away is to play video games, which is what Lanzo said the boy was doing when he was found in a Target store after he ran away one time in particular.