ELYRIA — Convicted killer Daniel Kovarbasich was found to have violated his probation this morning for allegedly threatening to stab a guard at the Lorain County Jail earlier this year.

CT file photo.

Daniel, 17, was convicted last year of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault for the Jan. 22, 2010, beating and stabbing death of 55-year-old Duane Hurley.

The teen, who was tried as an adult, was sentenced to five years of probation over the objections of prosecutors, but has been held in the county jail while his lawyers and county Common Pleas Judge James Burge’s staff look for a place where he can receive court-ordered residential treatment.

Daniel testified during his trial last year that he killed Hurley in Hurley’s North Ridgeville because the older man was molesting him. Hurley’s family has denied that allegation.

Daniel and another juvenile inmate at the jail, Terrell Fennell, allegedly discussed stabbing the guard with homemade knives after he told them to quite down. Both teens were punished by jail officials and could face criminal charges.

Assistant County Prosecutor Tony Cillo said Daniel had taken two golf-sized pencils and melted the plastic from a shaving cream bottle to form a longer pencil. Daniel’s lawyer, Michael Stepanik, said his client didn’t deny violating the rules, but had altered the pencils to make it easier to write.

Cillo said Daniel disassembled the pencils before guards searched his cell.

Daniel’s probation officer recommended that he be sent to prison for violating the rules, but Burge said that the teen would remain on probation.

Read Saturday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

GRAFTON — Every night, some 6,622 people go to sleep in this village, but Grafton isn’t becoming a city even though it crossed the threshold of 5,000 residents, according to state officials.

A law excludes prisoners and college students from population counts to determine if villages should be reclassified as cities, according to Matt McClellan, press secretary for Secretary of State Jon Husted.

If Grafton became a city, it would be required to add collective bargaining, civil service regulations for employees and myriad other things, according to Mayor Shari Sczepanski.

“We wanted it this way,” said Sczepanski, who went to Columbus years ago with Councilman John Lesher to successfully plead for the change in the law. “It’s a whole different ballgame and the costs associated with becoming a city are quite high.”

State prison spokesman Carlo LoParo said there are some 3,988 inmates in Grafton’s three prisons, more than the 2,634 residents who lived in the village in 2010.

Based on raw data from the Census Bureau, three Ohio communities — Ada, Granville and Grafton — reached populations of more than 5,000, according to Husted’s office, but all three are exempt from changing classifications.

Another Lorain County community, Wellington, grew from 4,511 people in 2000 to 4,802 in 2011. Village officials had prepared a charter anyway in hopes of keeping most of its rather bare-bones form of government, said Village Administrator Steve Pyles.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the charter, but Wellington will not become a city because it did not reach 5,000 people, Pyles said.

“Given what’s happening with the collective bargaining law in the state, life is a little simpler,” Pyles said.

Ohio will have 247 cities — up three from a decade ago — and 691 villages. Six villages have been reclassified as cities and nine cities have dropped to become villages.

Compared to the 2000 census figures, Ohio’s population has grown by 2 percent to 11.5 million.

Under Ohio law, the Secretary of State’s office reviews the 10-year Census report and verifies the population totals before issuing proclamations indicating their status as a city or village.

These municipalities and villages officially change status within 30 days of the date the proclamation was issued, though the law affords them the ability to go through an enumeration process if they feel the count does not accurately reflect their population.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

LORAIN — Lorain police are looking for a man who robbed a Dairy Mart at gunpoint this morning and assaulted the clerk.

Officers were called to the convenience store at West 28th Street and Broadway at 5:30 this morning, according to a police report.

The clerk told police he was in a back room when a man he recognized as a customer of the store for at least the four years he’d worked there entered the store and walked to the beer cooler.

When the clerk came out of the back room to see the man holding a silver revolver, the report said. The man then began yelling and running at him. The robber jumped over the counter and attacked him, striking him in the head with the barrel of the gun and leaving a lump, the clerk said.

The clerk said the man pulled him to the register by his hood and demanded he open the drawer, the report said.

The man emptied the register and fled, making off with $331.

Police described the man as a black male about 6 feet tall with a thin build. He was wearing half a face mask, a dark hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and white gloves.

The clerk said he recognized the man as a customer based on his voice, eyes and nose and identified him by his street name, the report said.

Police searched area but did not find the man.

Police took a VHS tape of the robbery as evidence and searched for fingerprints but could not recover any. The owner of Dairy Mart is processing four other video cameras, according to the report.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Vernon Wells, off to a horrendous start in his first season with the Los Angeles Angels, contributed to the winning rally after getting a much-needed day off.

The three-time All-Star, mired in 4 for 48 rut, singled sharply into the hole off the glove of shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera with one out in the 12th and scored on Jeff Mathis’ bases-loaded sacrifice fly to give the Angels a 4-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday in the rubber game of their three-game series.

“You know what? He needed that,” teammate Torii Hunter said of Wells, who joined the Angels in a January trade with Toronto. “He squared the ball up and got that feel again of hitting the ball hard.

More photos below.

“This is definitely a totally different scene for him. He was in Toronto for 12 years, and I definitely feel that has something to do with it. I mean, you change scenery, it feels uncomfortable sometimes and you feel like you’re not welcomed until you do something special. And today he got that rally started. He’s on his way, and it’s uphill from here.”

Chad Durbin (0-1) walked Alberto Callaspo after Wells’ hit, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch to rookie Mark Trumbo.

“There’s no need to put a guy into scoring position. You have to make them hit the guy there,” Durbin said. “Making them hit a ground ball was all I was thinking. I kept trying to throw sinkers middle-away and let it run off the plate or down, but I wasn’t very efficient. I wasn’t being aggressive over the plate. That’s what a reliever has to do — attack the zone.”

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An intentional walk to Trumbo loaded the bases for Mathis, who lifted a 2-1 pitch to medium center field and Wells streaked home ahead of Michael Brantley’s throw. Last September at Anaheim, Mathis beat the Indians by the same 4-3 score in the 16th inning with a sacrifice fly.

“We just played a hot team, and they won eight in a row before yesterday. So just to cool those guys down shows that we’re playing pretty well ourselves,” Hunter said.

Hisanori Takahashi (1-0) posted his first AL victory with two perfect innings. The left-hander was 10-6 with the Mets last season as a rookie with 3.61 ERA in 53 appearances, including 12 starts.

Angels right-hander Ervin Santana, still looking for his first win of the season, gave up three runs and six hits over seven-plus innings and struck out three.

Santana, who has spent his entire seven-year career with the Angels and defeated every American League team except Cleveland, entered the eighth with a 3-2 lead and departed after giving up a leadoff single to Adam Everett.

Brantley greeted Scott Downs with a single that sent Everett to third. Everett was caught in a rundown and tagged out by third baseman Callaspo after he fielded Cabrera’s grounder. But Brantley and Cabrera both advanced on Downs’ wild pitch, and Brantley scored the tying run on a groundout by Shin-Soo Choo before Fernando Rodney came in and struck out Carlos Santana.

The blown save by Downs left Santana’s career record against the Indians at 0-6 with a 4.98 ERA.

“He has great life on his fastball, a great sinker and a slider that he can throw for strikes anytime he wants,” said Indians shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who played for the Angels during Santana’s first three seasons in the majors. “When you have the stuff that Ervin has, it was just a matter of him staying healthy. I’ve been watching him on TV, and he’s become a pitcher, not a thrower. And he’s got a great team behind him that can make good plays defensively.”

Cleveland had runners at the corners with one out in the fourth, but Santana escaped the jam on a double-play grounder by Orlando Cabrera, whose comebacker deflected off the pitcher’s glove to second baseman Howie Kendrick.

The Angels got three in the bottom half against Carlos Carrasco for a 3-1 lead. Kendrick led off with a double in the gap and circled the bases on a throwing error to second base by Asdrubal Cabrera, who was in short left field along with Orlando Cabrera for the cutoff throw as first baseman Matt LaPorta hustled over to cover the bag.

Bobby Abreu then drew his sixth walk of the series and Hunter drove an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left-center, the 15th homer by the Angels this season and only the second with anyone on base.

“He just hung a slider. I saw it, my radar went off and I was able to put something on it,” Hunter said.

Cleveland got a run back in the fifth when Everett beat out a two-out single to deep shortstop and scored on Brantley’s double.

Carrasco allowed three runs and five hits over seven innings with five strikeouts and two walks.

“Carrasco threw a tremendous ballgame and had a very live fastball,” manager Manny Acta said. “I don’t think he gave up anything on the fastball. The home run came was on a slider and Kendrick’s double was on a breaking ball.”

Notes

• Angels relievers have not been charged with a run in 22 innings over their last seven games, after giving up 14 runs and six homers in 18 1-3 innings during the team’s first five games of the season.
• Indians RHP Joe Smith, who began the season on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained abdominal muscle, is expected to be activated on Friday for the opener of a three-game series against Baltimore at Progressive Field. CF Grady Sizemore and INF-DH Jason Donald, who have been on rehab assignments with Double-A Akron, will join Triple-A Columbus on Thursday for a game at Toledo.