YOUNGSTOWN Inmate pleads guilty to reduced charge
The inmate has insisted all along he did not spit on anyone.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Nearly two years after Anthony Pace was indicted for spitting on a prison guard, he has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and avoided a trial.
Pace, 37, of Columbus, is an inmate at the maximum-security Ohio State Penitentiary on the city's East Side, where he's serving seven to 25 years for rape. He has been in prison since 1983.
A Mahoning County grand jury indicted him Dec. 21, 2000, on a charge of harassment by an inmate. Prosecutors say Pace spit on a guard at the prison.
Pace was scheduled for trial Thursday before Judge Maureen A. Cronin of common pleas court, but instead pleaded guilty to aggravated menacing, a first-degree misdemeanor. Authorities said he threatened the guard before he spit on him.
Judge Cronin sentenced him to 180 days in the county jail, then suspended the jail sentence and sent Pace back to prison.
Defense attorney Louis DeFabio said Pace has admitted all along that he threatened the guard, but insisted all along that he did not spit on him.
If Pace does not get into any trouble at the prison, known as the Supermax, officials there will recommend that his security level be adjusted so he can be transferred from there to the penitentiary in Lucasville, DeFabio said.
bjackson@vindy.com