YOUNGSTOWN — Forrest B. Lytell, 83, of Idaho Road in Austintown, pleaded not guilty to robbery and remained free on bond Wednesday after his arraignment in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the Nov. 20 robbery of the PNC Bank branch on Mahoning Avenue in Austintown.

Magistrate Nicole Butler continued his $12,000 bond, and he is scheduled for his first pretrial hearing before Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Anthony D’Apolito at 10:30 a.m. Monday. If he is convicted, he could get about eight years in prison. He appears to have had no previous criminal charges filed against him in area courts.

An Austintown police report states that Lytell walked into the bank, waited in line and then handed a teller a note saying “give me all the money or else.” When police arrived at 10:20 a.m., they spoke to the teller.

She described a short, white man in glasses and a ball cap. She said she filled a bag with $319 in cash from her drawer, $250 in bait currency — a set of bills with specific serial numbers used to catch bank robbers — and $40 in tracked currency. After taking the money, he fled through the front door, the report states.

The tracked currency gave police a GPS signal that they followed to 72 Anderson Ave., a road just north of Salvatore’s Italian restaurant.

Police swarmed the area and located Lytell almost immediately.

They arrested him without incident. The report states that when police arrived, the arresting officer saw Lytell trying to flee into the nearby woods.

The officer, Sgt. Rick John, told Lytell to “stick em up” and Lytell complied. The report states that when an officer asked if he had anything to say, Lytell — unaware of the tracking device in his stolen money — asked “how did you guys find me so fast?”

The report states that Lytell directed police to the money, which he had tried to hide beneath the back corner of a shed on the Anderson Avenue property.

The report states that Lytell called in a false robbery complaint at that same bank an hour earlier.

A separate report states that after determining there was no active robbery going on, police went to his home and asked him about the call.

The report states he eventually admitted to making the call because he said he saw a suspicious person at the bank and did not think there would be such a large response to his call.

ANOTHER INDICTMENT

In another case, bond was set at $500,000 for Matthew J. Nicholson, 46, of West Garfield Road in Columbiana, during his arraignment Wednesday in common pleas court.

He was secretly indicted last week on three counts of rape, one count of sexual battery, one count of aggravated drug possession an one count of receiving stolen property.

If convicted, he could get more than 30 years in prison.

His indictments allege he committed two rapes against a person in April of last year.

Nicholson is accused of engaging in sexual conduct with the person by compelling the person to submit by force or threat of force. Nicholson is also accused of raping another person early 2023.