NEWS

State wants to try teen as adult in Clyde assault case

Kristina Smith
mksmith@gannett.com

FREMONT – Cory Corbin was having a good time when he ran into an acquaintance at a Clyde bar and started hanging out with him and his friends on March 12.

The acquaintance, Ryan Carson, told Corbin that he could spend the night at Carson's apartment on Maple Street in Clyde because Corbin had been drinking and didn't have a ride home.

When the bar closed, Corbin left with Carson; Carson's younger brother, 17-year-old Royce Jewell; and the others and went to the apartment, Corbin testified Tuesday during in a hearing in Sandusky County Juvenile Court.

While Corbin was talking to one of the women in the group, Carson, Jewell and two other men surrounded him, and then someone punched him, he testified.

"I repeatedly got hit until I fell down," said Corbin, 24, of Tiffin. "When I fell down, the two males that were behind me grabbed each one of my arms as I was getting hit.

"I got kicked, punched. I remember seeing a guy holding my left arm kept pulling stuff out of my pockets."

By the end of it, the group had stolen about $400 — which was in Corbin's pants' pocket — and two cellphones from Corbin, he testified. They made him change out of his bloody pants before dumping him at a Clyde Park in the early hours of March 13, he testified.

He suffered a broken facial bone, a broken nose and broken ribs and had to have surgery.

Corbin spoke during a hearing in the case against Jewell. Although Jewell is a juvenile, the Sandusky County Prosecutor's Office is seeking to try him as an adult because of the severity of the crime, Assistant Prosecutor Norm Solze said.

Jewell, who is being held in the Sandusky County Juvenile Detention Center, faces one felony count each of aggravated robbery and felonious assault.

He will undergo an evaluation within 45 days of the hearing, and juvenile court Judge Brad Smith will decide whether he should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult.

Solze said Jewell has a juvenile criminal record, but he did not have specifics. Jewell also had run away from his Toledo home and had been missing since November, Solze said.

Jewell's attorney, Matthew Exton of Fremont, told Smith that there was not evidence Jewell was involved in the crime. Corbin did not say Jewell beat him up or took anything from him, Exton said.

"We did not hear any testimony that he assisted or aided anybody," Exton said. "The only testimony that we heard today was that Mr. Jewell was at the bar and the house."

Meanwhile, Clyde police continue to investigate the incident and are trying to identify the other two men involved, Solze said.

Carson was charged with one felony count each of aggravated robbery and felonious assault.

Amber Forman, 25, of Clyde, was charged with one felony count of tampering with evidence and one misdemeanor count of failure to report a crime.

Cases against Carson, Forman and any other adults involved will be presented to a grand jury, Solze said.

If Smith grants the request for Jewell to be tried as an adult, the case against him also will be presented to the grand jury, Solze said.

mksmith@gannett.com

419-334-1044

Twitter: @kristinasmithNM