SHEFFIELD — A Lorain woman with a clean recent driving record apparently had a bad night Saturday and wound up with three speeding tickets in just over an hour in Sheffield.

According to Chief Larry Bliss, Amy Bobkovich, 38, was first pulled over and ticketed at 11:40 p.m. Saturday on East River Road between Colorado Avenue and French Creek Road. She was clocked at doing 55 mph in a 35-mph zone, Bliss said.

At 11:50 p.m. she was pulled over again, by a different officer, about a mile south of there, again on East River, about a half-mile north of state Route 254, Bliss said, and was again clocked at 55 mph in a 35-mph zone.

At 12:43 a.m. Sunday, she was pulled over on Detroit Road east of East River and clocked at 51 mph in a 35-mph zone.

According to Bliss, officers’ reports note that Bobkovich was “polite and cooperative” and said she just wasn’t paying attention.

Bobkovich hadn’t had a traffic ticket in six or seven years, Bliss said.

Bliss said he didn’t know whether Bobkovich had received any prior warnings about her speed but said of her going at least 20 mph over the speed limit, “that’s significant, two times.”

Bliss referred questions on Bobkovich’s fine amount to the Sheffield mayor’s court.

ELYRIA — Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski announced this morning that he will not sentence convicted killer Justin Chapman for a third time.

Chapman

Chapman’s lawyer, Kenneth Lieux, had asked Betleski to remove himself from the case because of a 9th District Court of Appeals decision that said the judge appeared to have given Chapman a harsher sentence, 30 years to life in prison, because he took his case to trial after rejecting several plea offers from prosecutors.

Chapman has twice been found guilty of murder and other charges stemming from the April 26, 2005, shooting death of his friend, Darren English, during a botched robbery. The victim in the robbery, William “B.J.” Fiske III, was shot six times but survived.

Betleski said he believes he was fair to Chapman — the second time he imposed a sentence in the case, he gave Chapman a shorter prison sentence than he had following the first trial — but didn’t want to risk having the case overturned by the appeals court a third time.

The appeals court threw out Chapman’s original conviction because of concerns over a plea deal prosecutors cut with a co-defendant in the case.

A new judge will be assigned to the case.

Read Saturday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

LORAIN — A Lorain man with a lengthy record has been charged with felonious assault following a shooting overnight.

Lorenzana

Andrew Lorenzana, 21, was arrested overnight. Reginal Johnson, 31, of Lorain was treated and released from Mercy Regional Medical Center in Lorain, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Johnson called police about 5 p.m. last night to tell them he had been shot and was being driven to the hospital. Officers met Johnson at the emergency room and found him bleeding from the leg and calf. They found three gunshot wounds to his left calf, although it was unclear how many times he had been shot because some of them could be exit wounds, a police report said.

Johnson told officers he had pulled up in front of his brother’s house on West 15th St., and he noticed that Lorenzana pulled up behind him and parked in the street. Johnson said Lorenzana asked to buy marijuana from him, but he denied him because he was still owed money from the last marijuana he sold him.

According to the police report, Lorenzana then got upset and said “It’s like that?” before asking a passenger in his car to hand him a gun.

Johnson said he then ran toward his brother’s house, heard shots and felt pain in his leg.

Lorenzana was arrested overnight and is currently in the Lorain city jail.

Lorenzana has a history of being charged with felonies only to see the cases dropped. Most recently, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted trafficking in cocaine and had charges of trafficking in cocaine and participating in a criminal gang dropped. That case came from a Lorain police crackdown on gang activity.

ELYRIA — A three-judge panel that will decide whether convicted killer and rapist Ronald McCloud Jr. lives or dies began deliberating at about 10 a.m. today after hearing closing arguments in the penalty phase of his trial. (more…)