WARREN Man gets 7 years for attack

Police said the defendant attacked his wife with a steel fireplace poker.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A 25-year-old Ohio Avenue man, sentenced to seven years in prison, wept as he listened to the tearful statement of his victim -- his wife.
Jeffrey David Wallace placed his hand over his face as he watched the videotaped impact statement of his estranged wife, Shannon, during his sentencing hearing Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Miriam Fife, victim's witness advocate for the county prosecutor's office, said Shannon Wallace's therapist suggested the videotaped statement because it would be too difficult for her to appear in the courtroom.
Jeffrey Wallace pleaded guilty last month to charges of felonious assault, aggravated robbery and assault on a police officer. Police said he assaulted his wife with a fireplace poker.
Wife's response
"To me no sentence will ever be long enough," Shannon Wallace said. "I'm scared about the day he will get out. He has to serve a sentence, but I have to serve the sentence in society. I have to find resources to raise our two children. He will still have a bed and three meals a day. I will have to fight to get that for myself and my children."
She also told the judge that she has scars on her head and hands and is undergoing counseling.
"Sometimes I think it's just too much for me to deal with," Shannon Wallace, 25, said as she sobbed. "Sometimes I wish I would have died."
Wallace said he was sorry. He said that he was upset that night he attacked his wife because of bills they owed.
Judge Peter Kontos said Wallace almost killed his wife. "You have caused permanent physical and psychological harm to your wife," Judge Kontos said.
Detective Dewey Gray of the city police department said Jeffrey Wallace was arrested around 4 a.m. April 8 after he beat his wife.
What happened
Gray said he believed that Wallace was attempting to kill her. He said that Shannon Wallace was sleeping in bed and Wallace hit her over the head with the steel poker.
Gray said Shannon Wallace suffered several cuts to her head, and her hand was broken in three places.
Gray noted that after police arrived, Wallace first told them that someone had broken in and assaulted both of them. Police separated the two, and Shannon Wallace told them her husband had assaulted her. Wallace then began fighting with officers, reports state.
Police said that Wallace tried to take an officer's gun and that it took several police officers to arrest him.
sinkovich@vindy.com