YOUNGSTOWN Mugger receives 28-year sentence

McBride's sentence is consecutive to a 40-year term from Trumbull County.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Muggers made Joseph Caffey run, but they couldn't stop him from walking in Wick Park every day.
The 64-year-old man and his wife, Lillie, were among a group of people who were accosted in the park by Christopher McBride and Jamal Bullock last summer.
McBride, 21, of Berwick Avenue, was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years in prison by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Bullock, 32, of Liberty Road, received the same sentence two weeks ago.
Both men had pleaded guilty in March to multiple counts of aggravated robbery, robbery and burglary and to using a firearm to commit the crimes.
McBride and Bullock robbed five people who were walking in the park in August 2002. The next day they robbed a couple on Melvina Avenue, on the city's East Side, and robbed a Campbell woman in her home.
Encounter
Caffey said he and his wife, who also is 64, were walking in the North Side park when a friend and fellow walker approached and told them he'd just been robbed. Caffey was headed for his car to call police on a cellular telephone when he saw a car coming toward them.
Caffey's friend recognized the car and said it was the same men who'd mugged him minutes earlier.
"I didn't figure they wanted him because they'd already robbed him," Caffey said. "I knew they were coming for us."
The Caffeys ran through the park to get away, with McBride and Bullock chasing them on foot. When Mrs. Caffey turned to look backward, she fell and fractured her right foot, Caffey said. The muggers caught up to them, but were thwarted in their attempt to rob them.
Caffey said other walkers saw what was happening and ran to the Caffeys' rescue. When McBride and Bullock saw the others coming, they got into their car and fled.
Caffey said the experience was traumatic for him and his wife, but they're not afraid of the park.
"I walked the next day," he said, noting that he still feels safe there.
"This is isolated," the bespectacled, gray-haired man said. "It doesn't happen every day. You have to keep on living."
Caffey said his wife has not yet resumed walking with him, but it's not fear that has kept her away. He said she's still nursing the broken foot and doesn't want to resume regular walking too soon.
No leniency
McBride's lawyer, Ronald Yarwood, said his client is schizophrenic, but Judge Krichbaum wasn't swayed. He said the men committed "unforgivable, predatory acts against older and weaker people." The victims ranged in age from 52 and 83.
Judge Krichbaum ordered the 28-year prison term to be consecutive with a 40-year sentence McBride recently received in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for unrelated charges of rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
Yarwood asked for the sentences to be concurrent, but the judge refused, saying it would be "like giving these crimes away" without punishment.
Assistant prosecutor Patrick R. Pochiro said Bullock also faces Trumbull County charges, for which he's set for trial in August.
bjackson@vindy.com