BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      A 39-year-old Salem man was pronounced dead at 7:20 a.m. on Thurs., Jan. 3 in the emergency room at Mercy Health Medical Center in Boardman, about 45 minutes after a woman called 9-1-1 to say she awoke to find her boyfriend not breathing in a room at the Wagon Wheel Motel, 7015 Market St.
      Fire department EMS, as well as an ambulance crew went to the motel at 6:42 a.m. on Jan. 3, where Samantha Maxwell, 32, of 7071 Berry Blossom Dr., Canfield, Oh. said when she woke-up, about 6:40 a.m., she discovered her boyfriend “not breathing, blue and white, and cold to the touch,” Ptl. Rob Spatar said.
      Maxwell told Ptl. Tim Hughes she and her boyfriend got into an argument about 10:00 p.m. on Jan. 2 “because her boyfriend wanted to get high and she did not.” She told the policeman her boyfriend was a “former drug user, primarily heroin, and had been clean for approximately 80 days” adding he took travadone to go to sleep, as well as seroquel for other issues.
      “Maxwell told Ptl. Hughes at approximately 3:00 a.m., her boyfriend tore the room apart, looking for his medication “that he took everyday,” adding “he must have taken all of it,” Officer Spatar said.
      While investigating the possible death, police learned that Maxwell was wanted on three warrants, including one for theft in Boardman Township. Her lengthy arrest records include theft and drug charges dating back to 2004.
      According to police, Kelsey Simon, of the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office “declined to respond to the scene.” Boardman Police Department Capt. Albert Kakascik assigned Det. Greg Stepuk to investigate the death.
      Pronounced dead at 7:27 a.m. in the emergency room by Dr. Awad Spirtos at Mercy Health was Craig Adam Apinis, 2169 Edgewood Dr., Salem, Oh.
      Maxwell was taken to the Mahoning County Jail on a warrant for the theft of $75 worth of merchandise at Wal-Mart, 1300 Doral Dr., on Oct. 7, 2018.
      She was also the subject of a warrant issued out of Austintown on June 26, 2018 for the theft of $511 from the Zodiac Lounge and Grille, 169 South Forest Hill Rd., Austintown; as well as a warrant issued on June 8, 2018 out of Austintown for failing to appear in court on charges possession of criminal tools and soliciting.
      According to Boardman police, on Oct. 7, 2018, a female in a wheelchair was observed at Wal-Mart at a self-checkout using a 25-cent Kool Aid packet to scan merchandise, rather than the actual item.
      “After scanning all the items, the female then removed her food assistance card from her wallet and acted like she was going to scan the card, but never did,” Ptl. Michael Calautti said, adding that “the female then gathered the now bagged items and placed them into the wheelchair’s basket and proceeded to exit the store” where she was then detained by security.
      The suspect was requested to then return to the loss prevention office at Wal-Mart.
      “Initially she complied, but then said the Wal-Mart loss prevention was not the police and she was not going to stay,” Officer Calautti was told, noting the suspect then left the store and left the parking lot in a Ford Focus.