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Volume 54, No. 14
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CHESTERLAND NEWS Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Your Community Newspaper Since 1967
DNA Match Solves 2015 Attempted Armed Robbery By John Karlovec john@karlovecmedia.com For seven years, the attempted armed robbery of the former Chesterland Pizza Hut had gone unsolved. However, due to DNA evidence collected in another crime, Chester Township police have identified the suspected armed gunman. A Geauga County grand jury on Nov. 15 indicted Malachi R. Bell, 32, of Douglas Road, Wickliffe, and charged him with one count each of second-degree felony robbery and first-degree felony kidnapping in connection with the Aug. 16, 2015, crime. “Detectives from Chester Township Police Department were able to solve this crime when the suspect was arrested on a felony rape
charge in Cuyahoga County,” Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz told the Chesterland News. “His DNA was put into the state database and produced a hit. Confirmation testing linked the defendant to the robbery. He is currently in the Cuyahoga County Jail.” An arraignment date has not been set on the new charges, added Flaiz. A Pizza Hut driver was able to disarm the would-be armed robber after grabbing the suspect’s gun and chasing him out of the restaurant at 12720 Chillicothe Road, which Bada-Bing Chesterland! now occupies. No money was taken and none of the four employees onsite were injured, and there were no customers on the premises. A female employee first alerted
a Geauga County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher of a crime in progress when she called 911 before 8 p.m. Aug. 16. “I walked in the door and there was a man with a gun,” she said, adding she turned around and went back to her car to call from the Giant Eagle parking lot. She described the suspect as “black, skin- Bell ny, about 6 feet tall, with a fisherman’s hat.” The next 911 call was from a man who saw the suspect race down Opalocka Drive. “He’s on foot and running … literally by the police department,” the caller said. The suspect was in all dark cloth-
ing and a white hat, the man added. Three calls followed as witnesses informed dispatchers of the fleeing robber’s progress. The Pizza Hut manager also called 911. “A man came in with a gun and tried to rob us,” she said. “My driver grabbed the gun and the guy ran out.” “Our phones are lighting up,” the dispatcher told the manager and several other calls were answered as law enforcement started searching for the robber. Multiple agencies, including the sheriff’s office, Ohio State Highway Patrol and police from South Russell Village, Kirtland and Kirtland Hills assisted in the search for the suspect.
Chester Couple to Appear in Religious Drama By Brian Doering brian@karlovecmedia.com Living in the heart of Ohio’s snowbelt, B.J. and Diana Kresnye, of Chester Township, are no strangers to extreme weather conditions. That experience came in handy when the couple got the chance to appear as extras in “The Chosen,” the first multi-season series about the life of Jesus Christ. The Kresnyes appear as two of about 2,000 extras during a scene featuring Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus, reciting verses from the “Sermon on the Mount.” The pair appear in a wider crowd shot, but the Kresnyes may also appear in some closer, in-depth scenes in the first episodes of the show’s new season, which premiers in theaters Nov. 18. The filming, which took place last year in Texas, felt more like Ohio than the couple had planned, as record-low temperatures hit the Lonestar state in February 2021. With snow and ice making roads impassable and the state’s electric grid operator losing control of the power supply, millions were left without power. “Barring any divine intervention, we knew the weather was going to be a challenge,” said B.J., not-
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B.J. and Diana Kresyne, of Chester Township, encountered a long stretch of frigid weather while filming scenes as extras for an episode of the popular religious drama, “The Chosen.”
ing there was no way the director could change the filming schedule. “‘The show must go on,’ as they say.” Watching the series in a movie theater should be a lot warmer than the day the scenes were filmed, B.J. said, adding he and Diana spent almost six hours enduring 28-degree wind chills.
Diana said they wore nine layers of socks and rubber booties over their sandals and bare feet to brave the cold weather. “We all called ourselves ‘The Frozen Chosen,’” said Diana. “Under our first-century costumes, we were layered up. I even brought a thermos of hot chocolate that I hid in my straw bag.”
The Kresnyes discovered the crowd-funded show during the COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring of 2020. “Ads about the show had popped up on my social media for months, but I ignored them,” she said. “Christian movies and TV shows have historically been low budget with bad acting. I couldn’t imagine an online show being very good.” But that changed while the couple was in lockdown and began watching the series on YouTube. B.J. said the show — which is free and can be streamed via services like Amazon Prime — has writing, music and production value that rival anything Hollywood puts out. It is the highest crowd-funded TV series or film project and has been watched in 180 countries, translated into more than 50 languages, and has nearly half-a-billion-episode views, Diana said. “Because the show is not backed by Hollywood or any of the big studios, it relies on fans to provide the funding,” said B.J. “It’s a step of faith that the show’s director, Dallas Jenkins, took — relying on God and His people to make the show possible.” To date, fans like the Kresnyes See Drama • Page 5
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