Trey Bell

YOUNGSTOWN — Trey D. Bell, 30, of Pittsburgh, was indicted Thursday by a Mahoning County grand jury on charges of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification and kidnapping with a firearm specification in a Dec. 27 robbery of the AT&T store in Oakmont Plaza in Columbiana. The store is in a part of Columbiana that is in Beaver Township, Mahoning County.

If Bell is convicted, he could get more than 20 years in prison.

According to a Columbiana Police Department report, a man entered the AT&T store on state Route 46 with a handgun, mask and backpack, robbed the store of electronics then fled out the back.

He took the employee’s cell phone and ordered the safe to be opened. After the safe opened, the suspect filled the backpack and a grocery bag with electronics and “petty cash,” the report states. A witness saw a white pickup truck leaving the area at a high rate of speed.

A call to police was made at 6:55 p.m. By 7:08 p.m., the store was “pinging” the stolen items, and a location at the Davis Hotel on Market Street in North Lima was identified, according to a police call log.

At the motel, a clerk said two men were in a room there and were using a white pickup truck with Pennsylvania license plates parked there. While surveilling the location, a clerk let law enforcement know one of the men asked for a taxi company phone number.

Officers called the men to come out of the room, and Kenneth Littlejohn, 36, of Ambridge, Pa., came out and identified the other man in the room as “Trey.” Officers in the back of the motel observed a man “going around to different semi trucks in a suspicious manner.” Officers then detained the man. He was wearing a green hat that “could be the same as the surveillance video from the store,” the report states.

A state trooper said the man refused to identify himself or talk, but did have an ID in his pocket identifying him as Trey Bell. An officer found a black hooded sweatshirt and a bag full of phones in a bag tucked behind the cab of a semi-truck parked near the motel.

The sweatshirt and a neck gaiter found inside it matched items from the video of he AT&T robbery, the report states. Also found in the bag was a yellow Giant Eagle bag that was used in the robbery, the report noted. An extensive search was conducted for a firearm, but none was found. Bell was taken into custody and remains in the Mahoning County jail.

Littlejohn pleaded guilty to misdemeanor receiving stolen property in the case Jan. 3 in Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield. Littlejohn was sentenced to 18 months of probation. A felony charge of possessing criminal tools was dismissed.