The schedule at Indiana County’s Court of Common Pleas is full of criminal call hearings today, including those for a man charged with carjacking in Homer City and two men charged with trespassing at the Essex House Apartments.
A hearing is set for today for 57-year-old Scipio Griffin of Johnstown. He is charged with two counts of robbery of a motor vehicle along with single counts of resisting arrest, evading arrest on foot and other crimes for an incident along Main Street in Homer City on December 22nd. State police said he tried to take two different cars and pulled a woman out of her car as he tried to take it. After both attempts failed, he got in the bed of a pickup truck but fled after it stopped near the borough building. Police found him near Ridge Avenue and Route 119 after a foot chase.
Also due for criminal call hearings today are 48-year-old Matthew Strotman of Shelocta and 51-year-old Andrew Dunkle of Indiana. The two were seen by police leaving the Essex House Apartments on Oakland Avenue early on November 4th. After a chase, officers recovered some previously cut copper piping along with cutting instruments and a gas generator in the building. Both face charges of burglary, criminal trespass, evading arrest or detention on foot, theft, theft of secondary metal, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief and possession of an instrument of crime.
Criminal Call Hearings are designed to update the court and the parties involved on the progress of a case. Proceedings are usually postponed to a later date, but on occasion, guilty pleas have been entered at the Criminal Call phase.
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