Probable cause has been found that a former Chagrin Falls High School student brandished a gun while robbing another student of a bag of marijuana.
Both male students were 17 years old on Nov. 5, the day the alleged armed robbery went down in the Village of South Russell.
Following a nearly two-hour hearing Thursday, Geauga County Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Grendell found more than a “mere suspicion of guilty” the alleged juvenile offender had committed the crimes for which he was charged.
The finding makes the juvenile eligible for a discretionary transfer to adult court if Grendell determines at a March 1 hearing he is not amenable to care or rehabilitation within the juvenile system.
“For purposes of probable cause — only finding that there’s something more than mere suspicion — you have a 17-year-old who said somebody stuck a gun in his face,” Grendell said. “Look, the victim isn’t exactly the most sympathetic victim. It’s hard to sit here and not take into account the victim was selling marijuana. Ok, that’s a fact. But even victims selling marijuana are entitled not to have guns thrust in their face and to be held up at gunpoint.”
Based on the alleged victim’s testimony, Grendell also found the offender fired the pistol as he fled the scene with a 16-year-old Bainbridge Township juvenile, who was driving his mother’s car.
The evidence was sufficient for the judge to find probable cause existed for the offender to be charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping, both felonies, misdemeanor theft, improper handling of a firearm and possession of an illegal firearm.
As a result of a recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling finding mandatory bindover of juveniles in certain circumstances unconstitutional, Grendell must now conduct an amenability hearing to determine whether the offender should be tried as an adult.
In making that determination, Grendell is required to consider whether statutory factors indicating the case should be transferred outweigh factors indicating the case should not be transferred.
However, the statutes are silent with regard to how a juvenile court should weigh those factors. Thus, Grendell has the discretion to determine how much weight should be accorded to any given factor.
Grendell appointed Burton lawyer Timothy Snyder to prepare a report covering the offender’s social history, education, family situation and any other non-medical factors bearing on whether he is amenable to juvenile rehabilitation.
The judge also ordered the juvenile offender to undergo a mental health evaluation and physical examination.
The events of Nov. 5 came to light after the victim’s then girlfriend reported the incident to her guidance counselor at CFHS.
School officials notified Chagrin Falls police who turned the case over to South Russell once they learned the alleged conduct happened in Geauga County.
The victim, who cooperated with authorities after he was assured he would not be charged with drug trafficking, testified Thursday he was attending a birthday party at a friend’s house when he received a telephone call from a person he thought was a friend of his named “Joe” who wanted some marijuana.
He left the party with his girlfriend around 11:30 p.m. and went to meet Joe on Laurel Road. The victim parked his car and, when the person he thought was Joe approached the car, his girlfriend rolled down her window.
The victim realized the person wasn’t Joe, but rather the alleged offender who he knew from a high school business class they both took last year.
“I still went to go hand the bag to him and when I was handing it I was looking at his right hand, and I heard a click,” the victim testified. “I looked in the other hand and I was just looking down the barrel of a Glock.”
The victim said he froze and feared for his life.
“I was just terrified because there was nothing I could do,” he said.
The victim said the offender told him, “This isn’t your night, don’t try anything,” before stealing the marijuana and sprinting off to his friend’s car.
While the offender and his friend sped off, the victim said he heard a gunshot.
The victim said he did not report the incident to police because he didn’t feel safe and knew he was doing something illegal.
Eventually, law enforcement was led to the victim and on Nov. 15 he provided a written statement to South Russell police after he had been given immunity.
South Russell police officer Michael Kleinknecht testified the phone number that called the victim was traced to the Bainbridge juvenile.
Investigators from the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office then interviewed the juvenile at Kenston High School, Kleinknecht said.
He also noted South Russell police received a telephone call on Nov. 5 from a Laurel Road resident who said she heard a gunshot that night.
Investigator Karen Sweet said the Kenston student was cooperative and confirmed the events of Nov. 5, including that the offender fired his gun. He said the offender used his cell phone to call the victim.
The juvenile also told investigators the offender carried his gun in a black container kept in a locked backpack. Although he knew the offender had a gun, the Kenston student said he did not know the offender it as part of the drug deal.
The juvenile said they smoked the marijuana he drove the offender back to his home in Willoughby Hills.
The offender’s mother was contacted and she agreed to meet authorities at her home. She told investigators her son was at work at the Burger King in Chester Township. Sweet called Chester police and asked them to arrest the offender and bring him to the police station.
Authorities then searched the offender’s bedroom and found an empty Glock gun case in his closet, Sweet said.
On the way home to meet with investigators, the offender’s mother testified earlier that she had called her son at work.
“I said what is going on, what is going on and he just kind of was quiet about it, and he said, ‘Mom, I got to go,’ and he left,” she said.
Asked whether she knew her son had a gun, she exclaimed, “Absolutely not.”
Chester police reviewed video-camera footage from Burger King and saw the offender exit the back door with a backpack, Sweet said. Roughly five minutes later, he is seen returning without his backpack.
Police later found the backpack in an enclosed garbage area behind the restaurant.
The offender consented to a search of his backpack, but there was no gun inside. Sweet added the offender basically confessed to everything except using a gun. He refused to tell police where his gun was, however.
“By that time, we had South Russell police, Chester police and eventually sheriff’s deputies searching for that gun all in and around Burger King,” Sweet explained.
Eventually, a Geauga County Sheriff’s Office K-9 led police to some pine trees 200-300 feet directly behind the Burger King where the Glock was found next to a high-capacity magazine with 23 or 25 bullets, Sweet said.
The gun is now being tested for fingerprints and to determine whether it was fired.