YOUNGSTOWN Arturo Novoa, sentenced to 48 years to life in prison in 2019 for murdering his girlfriend, Shannon Graves, 29, then mutilating and hiding her body, is asking for his convictions to be overturned.
A lawyer with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, however, responded to the appeal by saying Novoa’s case “presents some of the most gruesome and horrific details in Mahoning County and perhaps Ohio’s history.”
Novoa’s attorney, Lou DeFabio, argued in a filing with the 7th District Court of Appeals that when Novoa, now 34, entered his guilty plea to murder and 42 other charges, it wasn’t “knowing, intelligent and voluntary” because Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court did not make Novoa aware of the maximum penalty he faced.
Feb 12, 2021
Vaccinating residents of long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted-living facilities is working in the Mahoning Valley and Ohio, Dr. James Kravec, chief clinical officer for Mercy Health Youngstown and medical director for Mahoning County Public Health, said.
The number of Mahoning Valley nursing homes and other long-term care facilities with current COVID-19 cases has now dropped to four, all of them in Mahoning County, according to the latest numbers from the Ohio Department of Health. Numbers across the state similarly have dropped.
Facilities in Trumbull and Columbiana counties report only three cases of the virus each. Kravec said vaccinations among that population are also the reason for large drops in nursing home cases statewide in each of the last six weeks.
COVID-19 deaths and infections among patients and staff at Mahoning Valley long term-care facilities such as nursing homes remained low this week.
The Ohio Department of Health reported no new deaths at any Mahoning, Trumbull or Columbiana county facility this week.
It actually reported one fewer death in Mahoning County than it reported last week. That typically indicates a correction to earlier reporting.
Mahoning County’s nursing home death total is 214, Trumbull’s total is 156, and Columbiana County’s is 68.
As a state, virus infections at long-term care facilities dropped significantly again this week.
There were 1,501 patient cases this week, down from 1,847 last week. Staff cases were 1,128 this week, down from 1,329 last week. It is the fifth consecutive week patient cases have declined significantly across Ohio.
COVID-19 infections among patients and staff at long-term care facilities such as nursing homes dropped significantly this week across Ohio and remained low
erunyan@tribtoday.com
The number of COVID-19 deaths and infections at Mahoning Valley nursing homes continued to drop this week.
It is welcome news, especially for Trumbull County facilities.
There were five additional deaths at Trumbull County facilities this week. That is down considerably from the second half of December, when Trumbull facilities had 50 deaths in three weeks.
Mahoning County nursing homes and assisted-living facilities reported three more deaths this week, and Columbiana County facilities had one more.
Trumbull has had 149 total nursing home deaths, Mahoning 209, and Columbiana 68, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Meanwhile, the number of Mahoning County nursing homes and assisted-living facilities with at least three combined patient and staff COVID-19 infections dropped from 10 to eight this week. Trumbull County facilities with that many cases dropped from two to one, and Columbiana County continues to have no facilities with three cases.