MERCER COUNTY | Sentences

Six people were sentenced recently in Mercer County Common Pleas Court:
Joseph Porterfield, 29, of Logan Avenue, Sharon, was sentenced to nine to 24 months in prison and ordered to make restitution for conspiracy to burglary, a felony. He and another man broke into the Hot Rod Cafe on Chestnut Street last Dec. 12 and stole a safe containing $6,000 cash. Porterfield was also ordered to pay costs only for possessing an automatic locking knife, a prohibited weapons misdemeanor offense.
Joshua Euard, 19, of Sterling Avenue, Sharon, was sentenced to three to 12 months in jail followed by 18 months' probation for felony burglary. He conspired with another man to take two all-terrain vehicles valued at $7,100 from a Pymatuning Township residence last spring.
Nicholas Hatkevich, 18, of Lyle Drive, Hermitage, was sentenced to six to 18 months in jail followed by 18 months' probation for felony burglary. He conspired with a 17-year-old boy last May to steal $1,000 worth of jewelry, coins and cash from a residence on Bolde Drive, Hermitage, according to court records. He was ordered to make $1,180 in restitution.
Jeff Laskowitz, 37, of Ivanhoe Road, Sharpsville, was fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service for a misdemeanor count of causing an accident, then failing to stop at the scene. According to court records, on April 12, Laskowitz was driving a car that collided with another at Tenth Street and Ridge Avenue in Sharpsville, then fled the scene. All three occupants of the other car were treated at a hospital for their injuries.
Jamie Rouzzo, 29, of North Cascade Street, New Castle, was placed on five years' probation and ordered to make restitution for writing a bad check for $365 at a video store in Springfield Township and trying to cash $1,319 worth of bad checks in Hermitage in October and November 2001. Rouzzo pleaded guilty to a consolidated misdemeanor count of passing bad checks.
Gisella VanMeter, 37, of Boyd Drive, Hermitage, was placed on 18 months' probation and ordered to make restitution for forgery. She was also placed on one year's probation for possession of crack cocaine. According to court documents, she forged 11 checks totaling $520 and passed them in several Hermitage stores last fall and also possessed cocaine and drug paraphernalia in August.