CLEVELAND — The Ohio Lottery is moving to offer a second multistate game with the potential to win multimillion-dollar jackpots: Powerball.

The lottery announced Thursday that it will propose rules later this month for launching Powerball in Ohio as early as this spring.

The Ohio Lottery already sells tickets for Mega Millions, which is similar to Powerball. Both games are played in several states and offer jackpots that have reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Officials say more than $1.5 billion Mega Millions tickets have been sold in Ohio since 2002.

Lottery Director Kathleen Burke says the addition of Powerball would mean more money for the lottery’s fund that benefits education, and more revenue for retailers from commissions and bonuses.

Scott Willis. (Photo by Bruce Bishop, The Chronicle-Telegram.)

For his part in saving the life of a 66-year-old woman trapped in a burning car, Elyria Police officer Scott Willis was awarded a certificate of commendation from the Gates Mills Police Department.

The accident happened on Tuesday, Nov. 10, shortly before 7:30 p.m. Willis said he was heading home after working a shift in Elyria when he came upon the burning vehicle.

At first glance, Willis said he almost kept driving.

But he didn’t when he learned a woman was trapped inside. He jumped from his car and helped officers rescue the woman.

Willis said he stayed with her until firefighters arrived.

His assistance was invaluable, said Gates Mills Police Lt. Ron Whitmer.

“He is a definite credit to the uniform and law enforcement,” he said.

Read Thursday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

ELYRIA — An Elyria man accused of murder in a botched robbery last month that left two dead and a third man wounded agreed Friday to have his case bound over to a county grand jury.

Brady Phillips, 38, also faces felonious assault and aggravated robbery charges for allegedly forcing his way into a David Drive apartment shared by David McDonough and Michael Stump on Dec. 20.

Police say Stump was shot in the head by Herminio Serrano — whom police say was Phillips’ partner in the robbery — and died the next day. McDonough, who was shot in the abdomen, shot and killed Serrano, according to police.

Phillips fled the scene and was arrested the next day.

McDonough has since been released from the hospital, according to Elyria City Prosecutor Jay Grunda.

During Friday’s hearing, Grunda said Phillips and Serrano targeted one of two safes that were in the apartment.

The plan, Grunda said, was they were “going to get some money from ‘the white guys.’ ” Both McDonough and Stump are white, while Phillips is black and Serrano was Hispanic.

The mother of one of Stump’s children has said Stump was trying to clean up his life, but was still dealing prescription drugs to make ends meet while he looked for work.

Doug Merrill, Phillips’ defense attorney, said his client was at the scene, but didn’t fire a gun.

“He’s maintaining his innocence, and I think what the evidence is going to show is he did not possess a weapon and he didn’t fire a weapon,” Merrill said.

Grunda said Phillips had given a .38-caliber revolver to Serrano to use during the robbery. A 9 mm semiautomatic pistol also was found in the apartment.

Merrill asked Elyria Municipal Court Judge Lisa Locke Graves to reduce Phillips’ bond, which is set at $1 million on both the felonious assault and aggravated robbery charges. He also asked for a bond to be set on the murder charge, which Locke Graves had ordered Phillips held on without bond at a hearing last year.

Grunda argued against reduced bonds in part because of Phillips’ extensive record of violence, illegal possession of weapons and burglary. He also said that if Phillips was released, it could put witnesses in the case in danger.

“There were a couple other people (at the apartment) as well who could be in danger,” Grunda said after the hearing.

Locke Graves left the bonds she imposed last month in place, which means he will remain in the county jail.

Police and friends of Stump have said there were other people at the apartment the night of the shootings for a small party, but Grunda said investigators are still trying to piece together exactly what happened.

At least one woman banged on the doors of apartments in which foreign exchange students attending Lorain County Community College live the night of the shooting, seeking refuge after the robbery.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

LORAIN — Mayor Tony Krasienko and Councilman Tim Howard, D-3rd Ward, will be watching the wrecking balls Monday morning as the first of several homes slated for demolition through a federal blight removal program come tumbling down.

At 10 a.m., a vacant, blighted multi-unit residence at 2335 Beech Ave. will be the first property reduced to rubble thanks to Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds.

At least 14 properties have been purchased by the city through the program, which was created to help cities remove blight and/or redevelop problem areas.

“They’re coming down,” Krasienko said of the properties on Beech Avenue and Central Drive. “This is definitely an area that I personally targeted.”

Properties acquired by the city will either be demolished or renovated for resale.

After demolition, the city can either sell the vacant lot or hold it for future use. Either way, several eyesores will be gone, Krasienko said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “That’s been a troublesome area. There are still some dedicated property owners that have continued to invest money in that area and by removing these nuisances, it will give those residents a chance at a better neighborhood.”

Lorain received a little more than $3 million last spring and has until the end of 2010 to earmark those funds or lose them.

The city also got together with several other area municipalities during the summer and applied as a consortium for nearly $20 million in NSP Phase II funding.

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.