Judge asks man what he was on during incident

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP — “I don’t know what you were on that day, because your behavior was so bizarre,” Mercer County Common Pleas Judge John C. Reed told a man he sentenced Tuesday for menacing a woman with a knife and a car antenna.

Mark Allen Hayward, 37, formerly of Karns City, allegedly attacked the woman on June 12 in the parking lot of Prime Outlets at Grove City, Springfield Township, with a sheathed knife and snapped the antenna off her car, “waving it around like Zorro,” Reed said.

He was sentenced to six to 12 months in jail and was ordered to pay costs on charges of terroristic threats, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.

The woman locked herself in her vehicle and called 911. Hayward fled to a home on Golf Road in Jefferson Township and was arrested on state Route 58 in Coolspring Township.

Hayward said he was depressed, which spurred the incident. His defense attorney, Dana Flick, asked for a probationary sentence because Hayward has a detainer on him from Colorado for sexual assault.

Two men plead guilty to stealing scrap metal

SHARON — Two men charged with stealing $3,000 worth of metal railroad equipment to sell for scrap pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor charges in district court.

Ed Odem Jr., 58, of 547 S. Stateline Road, Sharon, and Tommie Phillips, 48, of 151 Shenango Blvd., Farrell, each pleaded guilty to theft and criminal conspiracy at preliminary hearings before District Judge James E. McMahon, Sharon.

In exchange for their pleas, charges of receiving stolen property, felony theft and one count of conspiracy were withdrawn.

The men were charged after a traffic stop about 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24 when a patrolman noticed a large quantity of steel parts in the back of Odem’s van, police said. The metal was taken from American Industries.

Odem and Phillips were both sentenced to two-years of probation and ordered to pay $143.50 in court costs. Odem was given credit for 10 days served in Mercer County Jail in lieu of a fine and Phillips was fined $400.

Businesses beware: Scam artist trolls region

SHARON — A Sharon business was the target of a check-cashing scam that’s hit other northwestern Pennsylvania towns in recent weeks.

Sharon police Chief Mike Menster said a man claiming to be a high school basketball coach on March 8 passed a phony check at a restaurant in the 900 block of Division Street.