Erick Howard guilty on all counts











CANTON —
A jury has convicted former Hoover High School football standout Erick M. Howard of all charges he faced.
The verdicts were reached Thursday evening in Stark County Common Pleas Court after jurors deliberated for nearly four hours.
Howard, 20, was accused of being one of the two masked men who broke into a North Canton apartment and tied up and robbed the couple inside on Aug. 20.
He was convicted of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and rape and accompanying specifications.
Testimony in the case spanned three days.
Earlier in the day Thursday, the prosecution concluded its side with testimony from forensic experts. The defense rested without Howard taking the stand.
In closing arguments, Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Chryssa Hartnett and defense attorney Rufus Sims each asked the jurors — three women and nine men —to use common sense.
Judge Taryn Heath set sentencing for Tuesday. Howard faces a likely maximum term of 31 years in prison.






Copyright 2012 CantonRep.com. Some rights reserved

The justice system works. We all make choices and we must live with them.

Thats just sick . I havent heard enough on the case because I dont live in that area . I thought this guy was one of Ohio's best. What the hell happened to him . Did he actually commit RAPE? Is that for real ? Was he just participating in the burglary and was present when the rape occured ? Ofcourse being there is terrible enough but RAPE? thats just crazy . I cannot understand that . Well if he isnt a gang member now he soon will be and when he gets out at 40 or something will he be productive or worse ?

It's sad to see someone with such great potential go so far off track. I hope someone will learn from this experience, and not make the same mistakes.

Very tragic ending here. Makes you wonder about Donny Hertler a bit? You take the kid in to live with you while he is playing HS football and now this 2 yrs later? Was he being mentored or just allowed to be a football player?

Thinthickbigred;1073794 wrote:Thats just sick . I havent heard enough on the case because I dont live in that area . I thought this guy was one of Ohio's best. What the hell happened to him . Did he actually commit RAPE? Is that for real ? Was he just participating in the burglary and was present when the rape occured ? Ofcourse being there is terrible enough but RAPE? thats just crazy . I cannot understand that . Well if he isnt a gang member now he soon will be and when he gets out at 40 or something will he be productive or worse ?

There were three of them, the other two were testifying against him. He was offered a plea deal of I believe 12 years, he will now likely get around a 31 year sentence, and who knows how much of that he will spend. I'd be willing to bet it will be more than the 12 offered, which would have probably been closer to 7.

skank;1073885 wrote:There were three of them, the other two were testifying against him. He was offered a plea deal of I believe 12 years, he will now likely get around a 31 year sentence, and who knows how much of that he will spend. I'd be willing to bet it will be more than the 12 offered, which would have probably been closer to 7.

Where's BAC to try putting a positive spin on this for NCH?

skank;1073885 wrote:There were three of them, the other two were testifying against him. He was offered a plea deal of I believe 12 years, he will now likely get around a 31 year sentence, and who knows how much of that he will spend. I'd be willing to bet it will be more than the 12 offered, which would have probably been closer to 7.

You know the details because that is your area . Was he the main perp, and did he initiate the rape?
Thats just frigging crazy I know this guy was living with his coach . How can he go so wrong ? What is that . Ive seen plenty of times when guys who played got into robbing or drug related gun fights and really bad stuff like that ,but when you throw rape into the equation, that is just plain evil . You can understand some things for robbery like drug addiction ,or drug deals gone bad . Not that those things are not terrible ,but they are prevelant today . Rape I just dont get it . Its been a long time since I heard about this case ,and Im sure you have had it up before but can you elaborate on the details .

I hope the SOB gets the full 31 years and has to spend every minute of it behind bars.

THE4RINGZ;1073795 wrote:It's sad to see someone with such great potential go so far off track. I hope someone will learn from this experience, and not make the same mistakes.

No 1 will learn from this. Remember the williams kid from benedictine? And now Teague from Ursuline.

Ohio's best = Thugs

oberhaus;1074045 wrote:No 1 will learn from this. Remember the williams kid from benedictine? And now Teague from Ursuline.

Ohio's best = Thugs

At least Clarett stayed above the law:rolleyes:

According to The Repository, "The robbers wore masks, but the woman said the bigger of the two robbers, whose voice she identified as Howards', raped her with his gloved finger or the tip of his pistol."

oberhaus;1074045 wrote:No 1 will learn from this. Remember the williams kid from benedictine? And now Teague from Ursuline.

Ohio's best = Thugs

It is too bad that a few bad apples that (were very good players on the field) tarnish the honor of the award. Like everything else in life these thugs get the press and all of the others that go on and are positive contributers to society barely get mentioned.I choose not to look at it as "Ohio's best = thugs" that generalizes it way too much and hurts those that have earned the award and proven to be good people.

Classyposter58;1074072 wrote:At least Clarett stayed above the law:rolleyes:

He was considerate enough to wait until college, lol

oberhaus;1074045 wrote:No 1 will learn from this. Remember the williams kid from benedictine? And now Teague from Ursuline.

Ohio's best = Thugs

Wait what ? what is with Teague from Ursulin? Did he do something also?

Apple;1074080 wrote:According to The Repository, "The robbers wore masks, but the woman said the bigger of the two robbers, whose voice she identified as Howards', raped her with his gloved finger or the tip of his pistol."

I see . WOW is all I can say . what a piece of garbage

Thinthickbigred;1074193 wrote:Wait what ? what is with Teague from Ursulin? Did he do something also?

http://www.ohiochatter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32246

In one of the articles I read, it appears he lived with the coach for a year due to his mom having to move to Seattle. When his mom returned he moved back with her. Here is a link to that article:
http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x748721647/Todd-Porter-Erick-Howard-dropped-the-ball-in-his-decision-making?zc_p=0

FairwoodKing;1074034 wrote:I hope the SOB gets the full 31 years and has to spend every minute of it behind bars.

...and gets a taste of his own medicine from his excessive friendly jailmate.

Old Rider;1074451 wrote:...and gets a taste of his own medicine from his excessive friendly jailmate.

Yes, I hope his cellmate's name is Big Bubba.

Old Rider;1074451 wrote:...and gets a taste of his own medicine from his excessive friendly jailmate.

Nothing nasty like that is going to happen to him in prison . The gangs all stick together and he will be a member of a gang . Remember too he is an athletic stud . They will love him in prison and he will probably be a vicimizer not a victim. He will be misirable at being locked up for many moons but his time wont be torment . I just want to set the record straight on that too . As long as the AB's dont want him he is safe

Has anyone heard of any updates on Brancko Busic & his band of merry men ?

Sad but true, you can take the boy out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the boy.

everything says promising football player, no big school wanted him. Not a promising football player IMO. Maybe they say he was a little off when they met him.

I hope the jury was predominantly Black. The defense often pulls the race card in these type of trails. I saw the NAACP protest against several cases locally from this.