Man gets 28 years in Wick Park muggings

His co-defendant will be sentenced Thursday.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Judge R. Scott Krichbaum wasn't buying it.
The story told by Jamal Bullock that he was sorry about mugging five walkers in Wick Park last summer and robbing three others didn't win over the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge.
"Sorry doesn't do me any good," Judge Krichbaum told Bullock, 31, of Liberty Road in Youngstown. "You violated the law in a big way. Sorry just doesn't pay the rent."
The judge cut off Bullock during his statement to the court, saying the Youngstown man "scared the ever-loving daylights out of" his victims. Bullock never finished his statement.
Saying he has to make examples of people such as Bullock, who commit one crime after another, the judge sentenced the Youngstown man Friday to 28 years in a state prison and five years' probation. The county prosecutor's office had recommended a lesser 25-year sentence.
Plea agreement
Bullock and co-defendant Christopher McBride, 21, of Berwick Avenue in Youngstown, pleaded guilty in March to three counts of aggravated robbery, three counts of robbery and single counts of burglary and aggravated robbery. They also pleaded guilty to firearm specifications, meaning they used a gun to commit the crimes.
As part of a plea agreement, six counts of theft against each were dismissed.
McBride will be sentenced Thursday by Judge Krichbaum.
Judge Krichbaum said he would have given Bullock the maximum sentence of 72 years if he had gone to trial and been found guilty.
Bullock told the judge he "messed up" and "made some bad choices. I wish to God I could take it back. I never wanted to do any of that stuff."
But the judge said Bullock's long criminal history -- he committed these crimes while on parole for a 1995 aggravated robbery conviction -- and the number of robberies and burglaries during the "rampage" shows that the Youngstown man poses a threat to the community.
Robert J. Rohrbaugh II, Bullock's attorney, admitted his client was "no stranger to the court system and doesn't appear to have been a choir boy." But Bullock acknowledges he was wrong to commit these crimes and is genuinely sorry, Rohrbaugh said.
Bullock and McBride robbed five people, including a Catholic priest, who were walking in Wick Park on the city's North Side in August 2002, some at gunpoint. The next day, they robbed a couple on Melvina Avenue on the city's East Side, and then robbed a Campbell woman in her home. The victims' age range was 52 to 83.
"I don't know how you could do something like that, and then come in here and say you're sorry," Judge Krichbaum told Bullock.