YOUNGSTOWN Man gets prison in stabbing death

The fight started because a man was hitting on the victim's girlfriend in a bar.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 27-year-old Warren man will spend five years in prison for stabbing another man to death in a fight outside a Youngstown bar in January.
Matthew DeMarco of Peace Street was sentenced Wednesday by Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. DeMarco had pleaded guilty in February to voluntary manslaughter.
The judge said he will consider judicial release for DeMarco after the appropriate period of time, but stressed that he could not guarantee it will be granted.
Jay Macejko, assistant prosecutor, said a person sentenced to five years or more must serve at least four years before becoming eligible for judicial release, formerly known as shock probation.
"I just want to tell everybody I'm sorry," DeMarco said, sobbing and turning toward the family of 21-year-old Delmar Nickels of Niles, who died of stab wounds in the fight. "I didn't mean it to happen."
What happened: Macejko said trouble started inside the Nyabinghi nightclub on Salt Springs Road, where Nickels got angry with DeMarco for making advances toward his 15-year-old girlfriend.
When DeMarco walked outside with two other females, Nickels followed him, pulled him out of the car he was sitting in and began beating him up, Macejko said.
Two of Nickels' friends joined in the beating and also kicked DeMarco, who pulled a knife and started stabbing Nickels to fend him off. Witnesses told police Nickels continued the assault after being stabbed, so DeMarco stabbed him several more times. Nickels sustained at least eight stab wounds.
Nickels' cousin, Tim Wolfe of Niles, asked that the maximum sentence of 10 years be imposed. He said DeMarco "had a score to settle" with Nickels and had intended to use the knife on him all along.
Defense: But defense attorney George Kafantaris of Warren said Nickels was as much to blame for what happened as DeMarco, since he initiated the assault.
He acknowledged that DeMarco should not have pulled the knife, which he said DeMarco carried with him because he used it for work.
"One life was lost. Another one is ruined right here," Kafantaris said. "This man feels very bad. He is ready to pay."