WARREN - The Rio Drive man accused of breaking into the Howland home where a 13-year-old was sleeping could face up to a dozen years in prison.
Gary Dowden, 34, of 252 Rio Drive, was charged Friday with first-degree felony aggravated burglary and fifth-degree possessing criminal tools in Warren Municipal Court. He also was charged with misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and possessing drug paraphernalia.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday and is being held in the Trumbull County Jail without bond.
Howland police Chief Paul Monroe said police received a call about 9:20 a.m. from the girl, who said she heard glass breaking and thought someone was inside the home. She hid in a closet and stayed on the phone with the police dispatcher until police apprehended Dowden.
Reports said police arrived at the house two minutes after the call. The first officers went inside the home and confronted a burglar, who escaped out the front door. Dowden was apprehended at gunpoint by the officer and several others in the parking lot of the nearby Walgreens pharmacy on North River and Elm roads, Monroe said.
Officers found jewelry stolen from the girl's home in Dowden's possession, Monroe said.
Dowden used a crowbar to smash the window and cut his hands while climbing into the home, the chief said. He was taken to an area hospital where he was treated before he was booked into Trumbull County Jail.
Dowden was unarmed, Monroe said.
Dowden, according to a records search, was convicted of felony grand theft in 2010 and sentenced to six months in jail. Reports said Dowden and three other men forged a payment receipt when they tried to sell scrap metal to Metalico Youngstown, Inc. in Warren.
Reports said they changed the receipt from 329 pounds to 2,329, which garnered them a fraudulent $6,295, reports said.
He was also convicted of drug abuse in 2008.