Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Each defendant could be sentenced to more than 105 years in prison.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Prosecutors planned to seek maximum sentences today for James Goins and Chad Barnette, while defense attorneys said they would ask the judge for mercy.
"They're just children," Atty. Damian Billak said of Goins and Barnette, who were convicted by a jury last week in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on multiple charges in the 2001 robberies and beatings of three city residents.
Both Goins and Barnette are 17 and were tried as adults. They were 16 when they broke into the Miller Street home of William Sovak, robbed him, beat him repeatedly and left him in a locked fruit cellar.
That same day, the teens broke into the Marmion Avenue home of Louis Luchisan and his wife, Elizabeth, and beat and robbed them.
Sovak was 83 at the time; the Luchisans were 63 and 59.
One possibility: If Judge R. Scott Krichbaum imposes maximum sentences for each count and stacks them to run consecutively, each boy could get more than 105 years in prison, said Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejko.
"That's what we'll ask for. That's what they deserve," said Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Franken.
Billak, who defended Goins, and Atty. Mark Lavelle, who defended Barnette, said long prison terms won't rehabilitate their clients. They want shorter sentences with counseling.
Lavelle said Barnette's mother moved the family to Florida several years ago to "get them away from the Youngstown environment. Unfortunately, it was not as effective as she'd hoped."
In trouble before: Barnette had several scrapes with the law in Florida and served time in that state's Department of Youth Services. Numerous psychiatric evaluations showed Barnette has a lack of empathy for other people.
Lavelle said he doesn't know what caused Barnette to develop such a personality.
"This kid has been in institutions since he hit puberty," Lavelle said. "The rest of his life in prison isn't the answer."
Franken said both teens have a long criminal history and have both been incarcerated before. Being locked up apparently didn't persuade them to change their ways.
"This is by no means their first time in trouble," he said. "These guys have been very active. They're no longer children, and that was their choice."
Neither Lavelle nor Billak was sure whether they would call witnesses on their clients' behalf at the sentencing hearing.
bjackson@vindy.com