MANSFIELD, Ohio — Police are looking for a man who could have information about a robbery and assault at the Mansfield adult video store Video Visions, which put a clerk in the hospital Sunday.
Meanwhile, the victim’s family hopes the community will come to the woman’s aid.

Ladonna Crego, 38, was found severely beaten in the bathroom of the video store on Park Avenue West. A woman in a nearby car lot called 911 in response to a female customer saying nobody was inside the store that appeared to have been robbed.

Mansfield police Lt. John Wendling, detective bureau commander, said a woman found the cash register open and empty. Police found Crego lying in the bathroom, although they believe she was beaten on the floor of the store after retrieving a key to unlock a video for a customer.

Crego’s mother, Patrician Dayton, said the woman was working 20 hours a week at the store to help support her husband and three children. She said the couple has some medical issues that prevent them from being more productive and now have an avalanche of mounting debt and no medical insurance.

“We’re helping them as much as we can, but they’re going to need money to live on because now there is not money coming in,” Dayton said.

She said Crego spent about five hours in surgery Sunday night after being repeatedly hit in the head with a blunt object. Wendling said Crego remains on a ventilator. She was listed in serious condition Tuesday, according to MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital.

Wendling said the department wants to speak to a man who was at the store either during or before the attack.

He is a black man with a stocky build between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 7 inches tall, driving a newer model four-wheel drive vehicle, possibly a Chevrolet Avalanche, metallic blue with black rollbars behind the cab.

“We would like to talk to him,” Wendling said. “He is not a suspect at this time, but we know he was in Video Visions during or shortly before this occurred.”