YOUNGSTOWN Jailed man: Robber stole what I owed aunt

The victim said her nephew had time to repay her before he was shot.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- It's been 16 days since Tyneshia Jones' boyfriend went to the county jail. He's got four days left.
Jones says he shouldn't have spent a day there.
A municipal court judge saw it differently.
On Sept. 18, James Simmons Jr., 31, was sentenced to serve 20 days of a 90-day sentence for smashing the windshield of his aunt's car in May after a disagreement.
Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly sent him to jail because he had not given the aunt any of the $191 in restitution he owed since he pleaded no contest and was found guilty of the charge in July.
Jones, 25, said he couldn't pay because he and his girlfriend were robbed in their Columbia Street home in August by three masked gunmen who shot Simmons and led the couple into their basement. Simmons was hospitalized for several days.
"He still has this bullet inside him and nobody's listening to him," Jones said.
Simmons' sentencing had originally been scheduled for Aug. 23, four days after the shooting.
Says money was stolen
In court, Simmons told Judge Kobly he had $100 taken from him that night, an amount he had planned to bring to the Aug. 23 court hearing for restitution. There is no mention of the stolen money in a Youngstown police report filed on his shooting.
Jones said Simmons was scheduled to start a job at a fast-food restaurant the day of the shooting. Now his doctor has told him he can't drive or work, she said.
Simmons' aunt, Christine Simmons, 44, told the judge that her nephew hadn't given her any money in the month between his conviction and the shooting.
"He didn't do nothing. He didn't try to bring me nothing," she said, according to a court transcript.
James Simmons Jr. told the judge: "I got shot. I was a victim of a burglary. ... I had the money. I was just a victim of a burglary."
"He had plenty of time to pay for the window before he got shot," the aunt said.
"Like I said, I had the money. I was bringing it into court. ... I was the victim of a burglary," Simmons said.
"Now you know what she feels like," the judge answered.
Modified bond
Judge Kobly said she had previously modified the man's bond so he could be released from jail to raise money to repay his aunt. The bond, originally set at 10 percent of $1,500, had been reduced to a recognizance bond upon the July 23 plea.
"You don't appear to be too worried about it," she had told him, before handing down the sentence and charging him a $100 fine and $60 court costs, payable by year's end.
She placed him on a year's probation. He will have to report until the $191 restitution is paid.
Jones said she fears that her boyfriend won't be able to drive or work because of his injury. She said she'll care for him now. She collects disability payments.
"Is he going to have to go to jail once again?" she asked.