COURT NEWS: Man pleads guilty for offenses including stealing car with toddler from Akron gas station

BGNN staff report

AKRON  A man pleaded guilty for three separate offenses including stealing a vehicle with a 2-year-old inside from a gas station in Akron.

Ja’Den White, 22, pleaded guilty to three separate offenses, according to a news release from the prosecutor’s office. White pleaded guilty to the following charges: one count of aggravated robbery with a three-year firearm specification, a first-degree felony; one count of abduction with a one-year firearm specification, one count of discharge of a firearm with a three-year firearm specification and one count of failure to comply, all third-degree felonies.

“Ja’Den White’s actions were extremely reckless, endangering an innocent child and causing significant fear within his community,”Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich said in the news release. “I want to extend my gratitude to the Akron Police Department for their dedication in pursuing the offender and ensuring the child’s safe recovery and return.”

 In August 2024, surveillance footage captured a highly intoxicated Ja’aDen White firing a handgun at an unknown target at the corner of Talbot Avenue and Lovers Lane. White then entered a gray SUV, traveling northbound on Talbot Avenue to flee the scene. Later that same day, White approached a man waiting for his Lyft driver and offered marijuana in exchange for a ride. When the Lyft driver stopped at Circle K on East Market Street, White attempted to rob the witness. Both the driver and the witness fled the vehicle. A few days later, White returned to the same gas station and stole a vehicle with a child in the backseat. Law enforcement pursued the car for forty minutes before White was stopped and apprehended by police. A firearm was found in the passenger seat.

 White is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6, at 1 p.m. by Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Kelly L. McLaughlin.