Municipal

LISBON — In Columbiana County Municipal Court, a psychological examination by the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio was ordered for Jonathan D. Cook, 42, Oak Street, Leetonia, for competency and sanity.

Cook has three separate criminal cases pending, including the latest for menacing for alleging making credible threats to seriously injure or cause the death of a woman and her family by saying he would take a hatchet to them, an affidavit said. The threat occurred April 23 during a group counseling session at the Columbiana County jail where Cook has been held since an April 6 incident in Leetonia.

For that incident, he’s facing charges of aggravated menacing, criminal damaging, resisting arrest, obstructing official business and disorderly conduct for allegedly throwing a metal knife, an axe, a frying pan, a steel tumbler and car parts at the side of a neighboring residence in close proximity of a window that one of three victims was standing behind as he screamed profanities at all of them on Oak Street, Leetonia. He then refused to exit his residence as Leetonia officers attempted to place him in custody and barricaded himself in his house by placing a propane tank and numerous items against the rear door.

A third case was for disorderly conduct for allegedly screaming profusely while inside and outside his residence causing neighbors to call emergency services on two separate occasions and also for striking and punching multiple things inside the residence on Feb. 13. Leetonia Police had allegedly warned him on multiple occasions.

A preliminary/pretrial hearing was set May 4 for Randy Allison Martin, 39, Broadway Avenue, Wellsville, charged with fifth-degree felony vandalism and misdemeanors of theft and escape for allegedly leaving East Liverpool City Hospital and prying off the electronic ankle monitor placed on him by the sheriff’s office when he was receiving treatment at the hospital on April 20, damaging the ankle monitor. On Feb. 18, he allegedly removed merchandise from the packaging and concealed the items on his person, with three items valued at $56, at the Calcutta Walmart, then fled on foot.

A preliminary/pretrial hearing was set May 4 for Gage M. Gillespie, 18, Vine Street, East Liverpool, charged with fourth-degree felony grand theft auto and misdemeanor criminal damaging for allegedly stealing a motorcycle on April 19 in East Liverpool, removing lights, cutting wires and defacing the vehicle emblems.

A sentencing hearing was set May 4 for Alex N. Deetz, 36, Uhrichsville, who pleaded no contest and was found guilty of domestic violence and aggravated menacing for making multiple threats to come to a couple’s residence to murder them and burn down their house on March 29 in Rogers.

A pretrial was set May 11 for Shane Robert Murphy, 20, South Linden Avenue, Alliance, charged with two counts of menacing for allegedly making threats against a woman and a man, to slit their throats and shoot them during a telephone conversation in Leetonia on Feb. 9, also threatening another woman. He was also set May 11 for a probation violation hearing for a 2025 case of assault and attempted vandalism.