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State set to rest case in Champion kidnapping case

Staff photo / Guy Vogrin David Honzu, 64, talks to his attorney, Heather Ninni, during a break in his kidnapping trial Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

WARREN — Testimony from a Warren detective, analyzing the contents of a cellphone taken from a man charged with the attempted abduction of a woman at a Champion car wash, showed that the man had looked at porn websites and visited other car washes that day.

David Honzu, 64, of Bonnie Brae NE, Warren, is undergoing a bench trial on charges of three counts of kidnapping, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence.

The bench trial before visiting Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Gary Yost continues with state testimony this morning.

Honzu is charged with getting into a vehicle driven by a 21-year-old North Bloomfield woman the night of June 3 at a Champion car wash. The woman ran out of the car and called 911. Honzu was picked up about four hours later by county sheriff’s deputies near Elm Road and Bonnie Brae NE.

Assistant Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman called eight witnesses Tuesday, including Warren police detective Mike Altiere, who analyzed the cellphone that was confiscated from Honzu’s Buick SUV after it was stopped by deputies about 2:30 a.m. June 4.

Altiere ran four reports of data from the cellphone, including a timeline of all the websites Honzu had visited the night of June 3. While Honzu was sitting at Bud’s Car Wash on Mahoning Avenue NW in Champion, just minutes prior to his encounter with the Bloomfield woman, Altiere told Wildman visited pornographic websites — including one that showed teens having sex — from 10:12 to 10:23 p.m.

The Bloomfield woman testified that at about 10:35 p.m., a man with a knife forced his way into her vehicle.

The woman said she was parked on the west side of the car wash near the vacuums. As she was cleaning out her car, the man opened her driver’s side door and ordered her into the passenger side of the vehicle. The woman testified that when she did not move, the man yelled at her. As she tried to get out of the passenger side door, the man grabbed her sweatshirt but she was able to get free and run north through the parking lot.

She said the assailant, whom she identified from the stand as Honzu, held a kitchen knife and left the car wash in a brownish / orange Buick SUV.

The owner of the car wash, Joseph Gilles , testified that security footage identified the driver of the Buick as Honzu. Altiere also testified a financial report from cellphone texts from his bank card and credit cards showed that Honzu had spent $16 at Bud’s as well as visited three other car washes in the area within hours of the Bud’s incident.

“You don’t usually wash your car more than once per day?” Wildman had asked Altiere after he revealed the financial transactions.

Defense attorney Ross Smith noted that the cellphone records showed that Honzu had visited other websites and made other purchases that day.

“Visiting porn sites nor washing your car is not against the law, is it?” Smith asked Altiere during cross examination.

Wildman also called other law enforcement officers involved in the case, including the two sheriff’s deputies who made the traffic stop.

One of the deputies noted that Honzu was naked from the waist down as he sat on a towel on the driver’s side of the Buick SUV. The deputy said Honzu unsuccessfully put both legs into one leg hole of his black gym shorts while he was being ordered out of the vehicle.

An inventory of the vehicle showed that hand lotion, a welder’s mask, other tools and a pocket knife were pulled from the vehicle. Also found in the back seat was a black pair of underwear.

Yost is expected to make a decision on the case after Wildman calls his last witness and the defense has a chance to present a case today. It is not known if Honzu will testify in his own defense.

Smith objected when Wildman entered into the record Honzu’s other criminal convictions that include a 1995 rape offense and a 2015 attempted abduction that also occurred in Champion.

On Dec. 12, Honzu is scheduled to be on trial in Judge Ronald J. Rice’s court on a kidnapping with sexual motivation charge on a case dating back to July 29, 2007, investigated by the sheriff’s office.

Honzu has been in Trumbull County jail since his arrest on June 4 pending the posting of $500,000 bond.

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