YOUNGSTOWN Judge sentences 2 on drug convictions

The judge said drug dealers make her sick.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two city men are off to prison for being members of a drug-dealing gang.
Darnell Wright, 23, of South Forest Avenue, was sentenced to seven years by Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, while 20-year-old Tony E. Davis of Byron Street received a nine-year sentence.
Both were members of the Ayers Street Playas, a gang that authorities say controlled drug activity in the East Side neighborhood that came to be known among drug dealers as "La La Land."
A jury convicted them in October of engaging in a pattern of criminal gang activity and trafficking in cocaine. Wright and Davis were the first to be tried in Mahoning County under Ohio's law against gang activity.
Maximum sentence: Judge Cronin said she imposed a stiffer sentence on Davis because he had a long record of prior offenses that date to when he was a juvenile. His was the maximum sentence.
Wright had no prior criminal record, but that didn't spare him a solid reprimand from the judge.
"Drug traffickers make me sick," she shouted at him from the bench. "You've ruined yourself; you've ruined your neighborhood; and you've given the city of Youngstown another black eye. Gang activity will not be tolerated."
The judge also handed each man a 60-month driver's license suspension.
Wright and Davis were among 14 people, all believed to be members of the Playas gang, who were indicted on drug and gang activity charges earlier this year. They are the only two who've gone to trial. Several others have pleaded guilty.
bjackson@vindy.com