MAHONING COUNTY COURT Man who had sword in cane sentenced to jail

The cane has a removable handle with a blade attached to it.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dwayne Pixley still swears he didn't know there was an 18-inch sword hidden inside the shaft of his cane, but the judge wasn't buying it.
"I can't see my way to say this was just an honest mistake," said Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. "I don't believe that."
He sentenced Pixley to six months in the county jail Tuesday for bringing his loaded cane to the courthouse nearly a year ago. After he is released, Pixley will be on probation for 21/2 years.
The 35-year-old South Hartford Avenue man was found guilty in January of conveying a deadly weapon into the courthouse and carrying a concealed weapon. He insisted during his trial that he didn't know there was a blade in the cane.
"You'd better be aware of what you're bringing into the courthouse because if it's a weapon, you've got a problem," Judge Krichbaum said.
Pixley could have been sentenced to up to a year in prison, but the judge said that would be too harsh a penalty.
Pixley said his wife bought the cane for him in April 2003 because he had been shot during a drive-by shooting. The bullet passed through his buttocks and one of his testicles. He was using the cane to assist his walking when the couple went to the courthouse a week after the shooting to meet with the county victim-witness staff.
What happened
When Pixley placed the cane on a metal-detecting conveyor belt, deputy sheriffs noticed the blade inside the shaft and would not let him take the cane past the door. Pixley was arrested before leaving the building that day.
The shaft of the cane is a hollow black metal tube, and the handle is a brass eagle's head that screws onto the top of the shaft. The sword is attached to the handle.
At a trial in January, Pixley said the cane came from a flea market on McCartney Road. He said they were displayed on a table as one-piece units.
An investigator from the sheriff's department said he visited the same vendor and that the canes were displayed in two pieces, with the handles removed to reveal the blades.
"That's why it's impossible for me to believe you didn't know what was in there," the judge said. "That's a selling point for that type of cane."
Defense attorney Michael Gollings said even if Pixley did know about the blade, he intended to use the cane only as a walking stick, not a weapon. He said the whole situation was a "bad mistake."
bjackson@vindy.com