MAHONING COUNTY Federal grant will target gunmen

The money will be used to pay a new assistant prosecutor.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A federal grant will help Mahoning County crack down harder on people who use guns to commit crimes, Prosecutor Paul Gains said.
The county has been awarded a $120,000 grant, to be paid over three years, from the U.S. Department of Justice. The county will kick in a local share of $21,620 per year.
Gains called it a "gun grant" because it will be used to pay an assistant prosecutor whose job will be to handle firearm-related cases.
The criteria for approval is having a high rate of gun-related crimes.
"And let's face it, obviously we fit the criteria," Gains said.
He was not sure whether he'll hire someone to fill the new post, or transfer someone currently on his staff and hire someone else to replace him or her in the courtroom rotation. He won't make the hire until the grant money is in hand, and did not know when that will be.
Objective: Gains said the main objective will be to prosecute people who use firearms to commit violent crimes, though anyone who uses a gun could fall into the assistant prosecutor's scope.
"Even if they are just carrying a gun and never pull it, we'll go after them," he said.
Under Ohio law, prosecutors can charge offenders with a firearm specification if a gun is used to commit a crime. A conviction brings a mandatory three-year prison sentence that must be served before any other prison time begins.
Gains said the new assistant prosecutor will work closely with the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force and the U.S. attorney's office.
bjackson@vindy.com