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WARREN -- The felonious assault charge of Ryshionna Powell, 18, of Warren, was bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury Tuesday in a Sept. 21 incident in which Powell is accused of throwing a phone at another woman in the back of a courtroom in Warren Municipal Court, causing a laceration on the other woman's forehead.
Powell waived her preliminary hearing Tuesday, and Judge Natasha Natale bound Powell's case over to the grand jury. Natale also advised Powell that she is not eligible to make bond until she has served 30 days in jail because Visiting Judge Terry Ivanchak ordered Powell to serve 30 days in jail when he found her in contempt of court because of the incident.
Powell was in court Sept. 21 because of a hearing involving her and the other woman, according to a Warren police report. Powell and the other woman were in the back of the courtroom with Ivanchak presiding when the women passed each other and "bumped" each other.
Each woman alleged that the other woman "shoulder checked" the other, leading to the women taking a "fighting stance" in the courtroom and Powell throwing her cell phone at the other woman, hitting her in the forehead, leaving a laceration 2 inches long and a quarter inch deep, according to the police report. It bled immediately.
The incident was captured on surveillance video. Officers separated the women, and Powell was taken into custody. She was later taken to the Trumbull County jail. Ambulance personnel treated the other woman's laceration, and the woman's friend took her to the hospital later, the report states.
The police report states that a Warren police officer who was working security that day reviewed the video footage, which the report states showed that at about 2 p.m., "two females bumping into each other, taking fighting stances and then Powell throwing her phone, which strikes (the victim's) forehead."
The report states that the officer heard yelling and screaming coming from the court area upstairs. Another officer upstairs advised that he had Powell in custody.
The victim, of Lowellville, was scheduled for a pretrial in her misdemeanor criminal damaging and menacing case the day of the fight, according to court records. The hearing was reset until Oct. 19.
If Powell were to be convicted of felonious assault, she could get about eight years in prison.