MAHONING COUNTY Man gets prison for theft

The man kept cashing checks made out to his dead mother.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Calvin Cole Sr. is on his way to prison for stealing thousands of dollars from the state for more than three years.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Cole, 43, of Warren, to a year in prison Tuesday and ordered him to make restitution of $24,552 to the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
Patrick R. Pochiro, assistant county prosecutor, said that from January 2001 to May 2004, Cole cashed BWC checks that had been sent to his mother.
The problem: Cole's mother, Bertha, who lived in Youngstown, was dead.
Cole's father died in an industrial accident at the former Youngstown Sheet & amp; Tube Co. in the 1970s. The BWC sent death benefit checks to Cole's mother. She would cash the checks at a nearby neighborhood convenience store.
After she died, however, Cole continued cashing the checks at the store. He kept explaining to store clerks that his mother was sick and couldn't come in, Pochiro said.
Charge and plea
After an investigation by the state, Cole was charged with theft by deception. He pleaded guilty to that charge in October.
His lawyer, Louis DeFabio, told the judge Cole knew what he was doing was wrong, but his family needed the money so he kept cashing the checks. He told the judge his client fully intended to repay the state.
"I should have made a better judgment. I'm sorry, your honor," Cole told the judge.
Judge Krichbaum, however, told Cole that "sorry doesn't pay the rent." The judge also was perturbed because Cole, who had made bond and was out of jail, failed to appear for his sentencing Dec. 7. The judge issued a warrant for his arrest at that time.
The judge asked Cole if he had $24,000 on him. Cole said no.
"So you show up with no money, you fail to show up in court when you should have, and then you make lame excuses why you didn't show up. I have no time for that," Judge Krichbaum said.
The judge also ordered Cole, who has a prior conviction, to serve three years' probation after his release from prison.