Bogart Jr.
LISBON — The man charged for possessing William “Sonny” Young’s truck, wallet and other personal property in 2010 after he was found shot to death is now charged with his murder.
The Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office and the Columbiana County Prosecutor’s Office both announced the arrest Friday of Charles R. Bogart Jr., 48, Hazel Run Road, Hammondsville, in the Aug. 2, 2010 death of Young, who was 69 years old when he was discovered dead in the woods behind his Salineville home on Spring Valley Road near Highlandtown.
The grand jury this week issued an indictment related to the cold case homicide, charging Bogart with aggravated murder and murder, both with firearm specifications, for causing Young’s death while committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary or burglary.
“It feels good that we were finally able to get those charges filed,” Sheriff Brian McLaughlin said when contacted by phone. “I’m glad that we were finally able to make an arrest and able to give some closure for the (victim’s) family and friends.”
For Columbiana County Prosecutor Vito Abruzzino, the issuance of the indictment was the culmination of a lot of work by the county Cold Case Task Force, the county Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and his prosecutor’s staff. He credited new information and evidence coming out to get them where they are: an indictment and the person alleged to be responsible behind bars 13 years after the fact.
Abruzzino said his office requested a $1 million bond. He’s expecting arraignment to occur on Dec. 14.
According to McLaughlin, Bogart had left home and was tracked to his place of employment in Beaver Township, where he was taken into custody Friday morning. He thanked the Columbiana County Prosecutor’s Office and the Beaver Township Police Department for their assistance.
Neither Abruzzino nor McLaughlin would release any details about the new evidence.
Abruzzino said in a press release that focusing on the large number of cold cases in the county has been a priority for his office. When contacted, he said part of that process included the formation of the Cold Case Task Force in 2022 and the digitizing of all those paper files for the cold cases so they could be brought up to date and reviewed.
He wrote that the charges in this cold case resulted from an investigation and new evidence procured by Ohio BCI and the county Sheriff’s Office. He also credited his own investigative staff.
“I also cannot understate the importance of the Columbiana County Commissioners in providing the additional resources needed to form and fund the Columbiana County Cold Case Task Force,” he said. “For that, we as a law enforcement community thank them for making these challenging cases a fiscal priority.
He implored the public to please call the tip line at 330-420-1050 with any information about any open cases.
“The only way we’re going to be able to get the information we need to crack these cold cases is by good people doing the right thing and getting the information to law enforcement,” Abruzzino said.
Regarding the remaining cold cases that are open, McLaughlin commented that with advancements related to DNA, “we’re very hopeful that’s going to knock those cases to the next step. I’m talking about indictments.”
Both McLaughlin and Abruzzino said a woman who had been friends with William “Sonny” Young and listed as his next of kin was contacted about the arrest.
Young’s body was found in August 2010 after law enforcement officials went to his house when alerted by Huntington Bank officials in Calcutta that someone posing as Young tried to cash a $3,500 check from Young’s account. That person was identified as Bogart, who was then stopped while driving Young’s pickup and had Young’s wallet. More of Young’s property was found during a search of Bogart’s Hazel Run Road home, including Young’s PT Cruiser found hidden in high weeds across the road from Bogart’s property.
Bogart was charged with multiple counts of receiving stolen property, forgery, identity theft and misuse of credit cards and ended up sentenced to six years in prison in September 2011, but served a shorter term due to jail credit.
At the time, he had been considered a person of interest according to published news accounts, but no charges had been filed related to the murder until now.
Bogart is being held at the Columbiana County jail.
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