Veterans Felony Honor Court. The program enables military veterans who qualify to get treatment and have their conviction erased if they successfully complete the program, which is at least one year long. Lytell pleaded guilty Tuesday to a second-degree felony and could have gone to prison, but he served two years in the U.S. Army and four years in the U.S. Navy. — both in the 1960’s — and qualified for Honors Court, which provides counseling, mentoring, supervision and mental health services. Lytell’s hearing was before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito, who runs Honors Court. Lytell will participate in the program for at least one year unless he fails to complete the program, and then he could go to prison, the judge said. Katherine Jones, assistant county prosecutor, said Lytell qualified for Honor Court and the detective who investigated the robbery approved Lytell to participate in it. Lytell had no previous criminal record. D’Apolito told Lytell he hopes to better understand during the time Lytell is in Honor Court how this happened. The judge said he remembers a professor in college saying, “At any given time, anyone can do anything.” D’Apolito said “I’ve never understood it until now, how you can live a law-abiding life — (83) years, and do something this serious. This is serious. You are very fortunate that you have a prosecutor and a defense attorney and (program) coordinator who are willing to work with you through this. “We’re going to be around for a while, so we’re going to work on this together, and I want to help you and help your family, but I am going to hold you to some conditions as a defendant,” the judge said. “As nice as I think I am, I have a job to do, and I am going to do my job, too.” The judge said, “I want to figure out how this happened. I want to figure out what we can do so you’re not in desperate straits that you feel you need to do something like this ever again.” He said he also wants Lytell to “appreciate the effect” he had on the people in the bank on the day of the robbery. Austintown police said Lytell walked into the PNC Bank branch on Mahoning Avenue in Austintown Nov. 20, waited in line and handed a teller a note saying “Give me all the money or else.” The teller filled a bag with $319 in cash from her cash 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, the Lytell fled through the front door, the report states. The tracked currency gave police a GPS signal that they followed to 72 Anderson Ave. in the township. Police went there and found Lytell almost immediately. The arresting officer, Sgt. Rick John, saw Lytell trying to flee into the nearby woods. He 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 tried to hide beneath the back corner of a shed. Lytell also called in a false robbery at the same bank an hour earlier. Police went to his home and asked him about it. He said he did it because he saw a suspicious person at the bank and did not think there would be such a large response to his call, a police report states.

YOUNGSTOWN — Forrest B. Lytell, 83, of Austintown, who robbed an Austintown bank and was arraigned in common pleas court last week, pleaded guilty Tuesday to robbery and was accepted into Mahoning County Veterans Felony Honor Court.

The program enables military veterans who qualify to get treatment and have their conviction erased if they successfully complete the program, which is at least one year long.

Lytell pleaded guilty Tuesday to a second-degree felony and could have gone to prison, but he served two years in the U.S. Army and four years in the U.S. Navy. — both in the 1960’s — and qualified for Honors Court, which provides counseling, mentoring, supervision and mental health services.

Lytell’s hearing was before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito, who runs Honors Court. Lytell will participate in the program for at least one year unless he fails to complete the program, and then he could go to prison, the judge said.

Katherine Jones, assistant county prosecutor, said Lytell qualified for Honor Court and the detective who investigated the robbery approved Lytell to participate in it. Lytell had no previous criminal record.

D’Apolito told Lytell he hopes to better understand during the time Lytell is in Honor Court how this happened. The judge said he remembers a professor in college saying, “At any given time, anyone can do anything.”

D’Apolito said “I’ve never understood it until now, how you can live a law-abiding life — (83) years, and do something this serious. This is serious. You are very fortunate that you have a prosecutor and a defense attorney and (program) coordinator who are willing to work with you through this.

“We’re going to be around for a while, so we’re going to work on this together, and I want to help you and help your family, but I am going to hold you to some conditions as a defendant,” the judge said. “As nice as I think I am, I have a job to do, and I am going to do my job, too.”

The judge said, “I want to figure out how this happened. I want to figure out what we can do so you’re not in desperate straits that you feel you need to do something like this ever again.” He said he also wants Lytell to “appreciate the effect” he had on the people in the bank on the day of the robbery.

Austintown police said Lytell walked into the PNC Bank branch on Mahoning Avenue in Austintown Nov. 20, waited in line and handed a teller a note saying “Give me all the money or else.”

The teller filled a bag with $319 in cash from her cash 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, the Lytell fled through the front door, the report states.

The tracked currency gave police a GPS signal that they followed to 72 Anderson Ave. in the township. Police went there and found Lytell almost immediately.

The arresting officer, Sgt. Rick John, saw Lytell trying to flee into the nearby woods. He 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 tried to hide beneath the back corner of a shed.

Lytell also called in a false robbery at the same bank an hour earlier. Police went to his home and asked him about it. He said he did it because he saw a suspicious person at the bank and did not think there would be such a large response to his call, a police report states.