Staff photo / Ed Runyan Marcus Cobb, 62, went on trial Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on two counts of felonious assault, accused of assaulting a man on Midlothian Boulevard last June with a pipe.

YOUNGSTOWN — Marcus G. Cobb, 62, of Tampa Avenue, went on trial Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on two counts of felonious assault in a June 24 incident on East Indianola Avenue in which Cobb is accused of assaulting another man with a pipe, causing injuries to the other man’s arm and head.

Cobb’s attorney, Mark Lavelle, told jurors in the courtroom of Judge Anthony D’Apolito that Cobb acted after being subjected to ongoing verbal harassment in the form of racial and other slurs.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kristie Weibling, meanwhile said that “words hurt” and “can leave a lasting impression,” saying, “That is why at a young age, our parents, our grandparents, our teachers and other influential adults in our lives taught us the old adage ‘Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us.'”

She said that is why, “At a young age we learn that no matter how hurtful or degrading words are, we cannot turn to violence. Why is the old adage instilled in us? Because of the rule of law. This case is about the rule of law.

“It is not about how we feel about someone. It’s not about what someone said to us. It is about accountability and uniform enforcement of the law that is reliable and impartial,” she said. “The rule of law prevents street justice…” Cobb “chose violence,” Weibling said.

On June 24, 2025, the victim was weed whacking around the perimeter of the fence of his friend’s business on Indianola Avenue, Wibling said. “Because of the hurtful and degrading name Kenneth Perkins previously called the defendant, (Cobb) without warning, whacked Kenneth Perkins on the head and his back multiple times with a metal pipe,” Weibling said.

Perkins got medical treatment for his injuries, including four staples to his head, she said. The charges accuse Cobb of causing serious physical harm to Perkins while using a deadly weapon — a metal pipe, Webling said.

DEFENSE

Lavelle described the situation differently, saying the area where the incident took place is the former Bugno Towing business that is now used for “something else. There are cars stashed there, stored there, a junk yard or at least cars being stored. There is a fenced-in area around it.”

He said Cobb passes the business “almost daily” to buy things at a store nearby. Lavelle said Perkins is “homeless, but essentially lives in that shop on the corner. For reasons known only to him, he has taken a dislike to Marcus Cobb to the point that when Cobb walks by the house, drove by the house on the way to the store or anywhere else, (Perkins) just spouts off.”

Lavelle spoke in the derogatory terms, both racial and otherwise, that he said Perkins has called Cobb over and over. “Daily we have this episode up and down the street,” Lavelle said. Perkins lives at the business, cuts the grass and otherwise cleans up there, Lavelle said.

Lavelle said Perkins has chased Cobb with the lawnmower, used the mower to throw gravel at Cobb, and followed him on the mower to the store, to hit him with gravel from the parking lot. And he uses derogatory language “daily,” Lavelle said.

There are dogs in the fenced area, and Perkins has released them on Cobb, Lavelle said.

Cobb keeps a stick on his front porch and has lost some fights with the dogs and won some of them, Lavelle said. When Perkins was engaging in the “same old, same old” with foul language and the lawn mower being aimed at Cobb’s car, June 24, Cobb “had enough, and he got his stick and he went over to where Perkins was and they had an argument.

“And during the course of the argument, (Cobb) had enough, he hit (Perkins) with the stick and then he left.” Perkins denied knowing why Cobb acted this way and denied having had problems with Cobb in the past, Lavelle said.

When Perkins went to the hospital that day, he did not want the police involved, Lavelle said. Later, Perkins admitted to calling Cobb a name one time a year earlier, Lavelle said.

The trial resumes today.