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From the blotter / Police calls and court cases, Nov. 28 to Dec. 4

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James McClendon, 50, of 21st Street, Niagara Falls, pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court to taking part in the robbery of a Gulf gas station at Walnut and Washburn streets in Lockport Sept. 15.

Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. said he will send McClendon, a repeat felon, to prison for 1½ to three years Jan. 25. In the meantime, Assistant District Attorney Peter M. Wydysh said McClendon is expected to tell Niagara Falls detectives about any other unsolved crimes in which he may have played a role, with the pledge that he won’t be prosecuted for any of them.

Three Falls women still face charges in the Lockport gas station case: Chelsee Williams, 18; Ashley Bivins, 21; and Jessica A. Burgess, 28.Niagara Falls police reported three more car break-ins over the weekend, including one on Loretta Drive in which a $700 global positioning system was stolen.

That theft occurred sometime Thursday night or Friday morning, according to reports, and involved an unlocked car parked in a driveway. Also reporting a car break-in was a Niagara Falls Boulevard man, who said someone broke into his vehicle between 2 and 3 a.m. Saturday while it was parked in his apartment building lot.

A door seal was damaged and the car’s glove box was broken so that the victim could not get inside to determine what, if anything, had been taken, police said. Damage to the vehicle was estimated at $240.

A Caravelle Drive woman told police that someone broke into her car Friday morning while it was parked in her driveway, stealing a wallet with credit cards and a pair of concert tickets valued at $200.

• Jeremy Russell, 20, of Main Street, Lockport, pleaded guilty to reduced charges in connection with a Sept. 19 burglary at a South Street apartment in which a laptop computer was stolen.

Russell pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal trespass and petit larceny, and was released on his own recognizance to await sentencing Feb. 6 by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Farkas. His sentence will include $700 in restitution, which is half of the damage and loss, Assistant District Attorney Claudette S. Caldwell said.

Wednesday, co-defendant Joseph Nicholson, 19, of Prospect Street, asked to be screened for the judicial diversion program of court-supervised drug treatment. He is to return to court Dec. 12 and consider pleading guilty to third-degree burglary as his ticket into treatment.A man who stole electronics from a Centre Avenue home may have been involved in a purse snatching attempt a short time later, according to Niagara Falls police reports.

The man made off with a Playstation 2 video game system and a cellphone from a woman’s Centre Avenue home about 9 p.m., police said, and was later said to be attempting to sell the stolen items in the Fourth Street area. Police believe the same man may have also been involved in an unsuccessful purse snatching attempt in the same area less than one hour later. The stolen electronics were valued at $400, according to reports.

• Two masked men carrying guns entered an unlocked home in the 1300 block of Elmwood Avenue and stole cash and a cellphone. The female victim said two men, one carrying a handgun and the other carrying a long gun, entered the house just after 2:30 a.m.

The woman said she was thrown to the floor, one man held a long gun to her head and the other threw her 12-year-old son to the floor and demanded to know where their money was hidden or they would kill the boy.

She said they searched the house and took $660 and a cellphone from a pocket of her coat.

The men were described as two black males, one 5 feet, 6 inches, 250 pounds, wearing a red bandana over his face, white jogging pants and a dark blue coat, while the other man was 150 pounds, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, wearing all dark clothing and a hood over his face.Niagara Falls police arrested a Lewiston woman after callers reported she was passed out behind the wheel of her car in a McDonald’s drive-thru lane, with empty wine bottles on the floor of the vehicle.

Officers stopped Cherie A. Coty, 37, of Elliott Drive a short distance from the Pine Avenue McDonald’s at 2:21 a.m. and confirmed an empty wine jug and another half-empty container inside her vehicle. They say she failed several field sobriety tests and was charged with driving while intoxicated, making an improper turn and driving on the shoulder of the road.

• Police interrupted a burglary-in-progress at the Poetic Justice Recording Studio. After receiving a call of two men trying to break into the Main Street building in Niagara Falls, officers headed there just after 4 a.m. and spotted one man standing outside, dressed in black clothing. He fled upon spotting patrol vehicles and was not apprehended. Police found a window that had been broken out on the side of the building, but there was no indication that anything had been removed from inside.

• A burglar pried open a shed door and stole over $1,600 worth of goods from a Beebe Road property in Wilson, Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said. The theft is believed to have occurred some time between 5 p.m. Wednesday and 3 p.m. Friday, deputies said. Items stolen included a generator, a boat motor and a compound bow. Deputies said that no one lives at the site, which houses a shed and two trailers and is owned by a local woman.

• Two people were charged just before 1 a.m. in an armed assault on a 22-year-old Niagara Falls woman.

Aaron D. Jackson, 44, of Ontario Avenue, was charged with third-degree assault and accused of punching the woman in the face while she was in her wheelchair in the Colt Block apartment complex, in the 2100 block of Main Street.

Miriam R. Jackson, 47, of Main Street, was charged with second-degree assault with a weapon and second-degree menacing.

The victim said she was able to escape from Aaron Jackson and grabbed a knife to protect herself. She said Miriam Jackson then grabbed the knife and held it to her throat. The victim said when she tried to grab the knife her finger was deeply cut when Miriam Jackson pulled the knife away, according to a police report.A Ferry Avenue man said his white 2008 Mercedes C30 was damaged while parked in an alley behind his home.

He told Niagara Falls police that someone flattened all four tires, damaged all of the windows, broke a rear view mirror, damaged all the leather upholstery and spray-painted in red the words “cheater” and “liar” on the side of the car.

Damages are listed at several thousand dollars.

• A snowplow was stolen from the lot of Kipo Chevrolet on Youngstown-Lockport Road in Ransomville sometime between 3 p.m. Saturday and noon Monday.

An employee told Niagara County sheriff’s deputies Tuesday that the 2009 Western Pro Plow, valued at $3,200, was a sale item that belonged to Kipo Motors.

• A Youngstown man faces an attempted burglary charge after a woman said she saw someone trying to get into her Ulrich Drive house in Porter through a kitchen window.

Steven C. Lewis, 24, of Third Street, was arrested when a Niagara County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Huff saw him walking along Route 93 near the Robert Moses Parkway. Lewis was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree attempted burglary.

Lewis, who faces a possible prison term of up to seven years on that felony burglary count, was arraigned in Porter Town Court and was ordered held pending further court proceedings.

Sheriff James R. Voutour said Lewis fled when the homeowner yelled at him. Sheriff’s deputies, Lewiston police officers, state troopers and agents of the U.S. Border Patrol were all sent to the scene and set up a large perimeter around the intended burglary site.A Lincoln 200 portable gas welder, valued at $3,500, and welding leads valued at more than $2,000 were stolen from a garage in the 400 block of Lockport Street in Youngstown.

The 76-year-old owner contacted Niagara County sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday and said the items were stolen from the garage sometime in the past five months, but he hadn’t noticed the theft until he began cleaning and closing up his garage for the winter.

He was unsure of the date but told deputies that he discovered the locking mechanism had been removed from his garage door of his three car garage recently, but did not find anything missing. He said the welder had been stored behind a boat in the rear of his garage.

• Charles G. Hill, 63, of Ferry Avenue, Niagara Falls, was arraigned in Niagara County Court on a felony driving while intoxicated indictment.

Hill pleaded not guilty to the charges, which also included failure to yield at a stop sign. He was arrested Oct. 23 in Niagara Falls, where police measured his blood alcohol content at 0.10 percent.

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