YOUNGSTOWN Man gets prison term for cash register thefts

Part of the prison sentence was carried over from a previous crime.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Rodney Dodson said he never meant to harm anyone when he took cash from two drugstores, a gas station and an Oriental restaurant.
He just needed to support his drug habit.
"Drugs just tore me up. They tore my family up," Dodson said before being sentenced Thursday to more than eight years in prison by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. "I need help."
In January, Dodson pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of theft. The judge delayed sentencing to give victims a chance to speak at the hearing, but none appeared.
Sentence: Judge Krichbaum sentenced Dodson to five years for the aggravated robbery charge, which involved taking a cash register from CVS Pharmacy on Oak Street in November.
Patrick Pochiro, assistant prosecutor, said Dodson did not use a weapon but threatened the clerk as if he were armed, then fought with the clerk who tried to stop him.
Dodson was sentenced to one year for each of the theft charges, which involved cash registers' being taken from a Speedway gas station in Boardman in October and Bel-Park Pharmacy on Belmont Avenue in November.
Violated probation: At the time, Dodson was on probation for a November 1999 theft charge in which he'd taken a cash register from East Wind Chinese Fast Food on Market Street. He was sentenced to three years for that charge but was placed on probation after serving about 16 months.
For violating that probation, he was ordered to serve the remainder of the sentence.
Defense attorney Douglas B. Taylor said that when police started getting reports of the cash register thefts last year, they immediately suspected Dodson because of his earlier crime.
"He walks into restaurants and stores, grabs up cash registers and runs out," said Taylor, who agreed that Dodson needs drug-addiction treatment.
He said police found the cash registers in a garage at Dodson's house.