AROUND THE REGION
Akron police warn residents of QR code, package scam
The Akron Police Department issued a warning to residents Tuesday to avoid scams involving unexpected gifts, known as a brushing scam.
The scam involves receiving a package that appears to be from a place like Amazon. The gift will have the recipient’s address but not the sender’s. When the recipient opens the package to determine who sent it, there is a QR code that could be scanned to find out where the gift came from, according to Akron police.
Police advise the QR code should never be scanned for any reason. The package can be kept or thrown away.
“A scammer’s QR code could take you to a spoofed site that looks real but isn’t,” the Federal Trade Commission explained in a December consumer alert. “And if you log in to the spoofed site, the scammers could steal any information you enter. Or the QR code could install malware that steals your information before you realize it.”
Driver indicted in head-on crash that killed Kent man in March
RAVENNA — A Bedford Heights man has been charged in a March head-on crash that killed a Kent man in Streetsboro.
A grand jury indicted Devonte Cordelro Anthony, 34, on second- and third-degree felony counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, two misdemeanor counts operating a vehicle under the influence, and a count of driving left of center. The indictment, filed Friday, specifies that Anthony allegedly was under the influence of marijuana.
A warrant was out for Anthony’s arrest as of Monday, according to court records.
According to a Streetsboro police crash report, Anthony was driving a 2019 Honda Accord north on state Route 43, when he crossed the center line to pass other traffic. While going over the crest of a hill, the report states Anthony’s car struck a southbound 2010 Honda Accord driven by 63-year-old George
D. Shiner head-on about 6:25 a.m. March 14, the report says.
The report estimates that Anthony’s car was traveling 55 mph in the 45 mph zone while Shiner was driving at the speed limit.
Shiner was taken to University Hospitals Portage Medical Center, where he died, police said. Streetsboro EMS transported Anthony to Summa Akron City Hospital with serious injuries.
Ex-KSU student gets year in jail for sexual assault of two women
RAVENNA — A former Kent State student will spend a year in jail for sexually assaulting two women off campus, but the judge expressed displeasure with a plea agreement that reduced two rape charges he had faced.
“For the record, I was not happy about the plea negotiations, “Portage County Common Pleas Judge Laurie J. Pittman said Monday morning during the sentencing hearing for McCoy C. Watkins.
Kent police said Watkins, now 23, attended a party at a North Lincoln Street home on Nov. 11, 2022. He left, but then reportedly re-entered without permission and engaged in nonconsensual “sexual activity” with a 19-year-old female he found sleeping on a couch, and then with an 18-year-old female sleeping upstairs, police said.
A grand jury indicted Watkins on two felony counts of rape and a felony count of burglary. In a plea deal, the rape charges were amended to two counts of fourth-degree felony gross sexual imposition. Watkins pleaded to those charges in late July. The burglary charge was dismissed as part of the plea deal.
Pittman said she found Watkins “amenable to community control” and sentenced him to one year in Portage County Jail and five years’ probation. Pittman determined that Watkins is a Tier I sex offender, which requires that he register with the sheriff of any county he lives, works or attends school annually for 15 years.