MAHONING COUNTY Killer gets 20 years to life for shooting woman, 24

The family of the murdered woman vowed to fight any parole for Townsend.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- LaTowan Townsend was sentenced Friday to the mandatory sentence for aggravated murder of 20 years to life in the Jan. 11, 2002, shooting death of 24-year-old Angela Loibl.
Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge James C. Evans also sentenced Townsend, of South Garland Avenue, to a mandatory additional three years in prison for a firearm specification, to be served before and consecutively with the aggravated-murder sentence.
Townsend, 22, will not be eligible for parole for 23 years, less the 765 days he has served waiting the outcome of his trial, Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Macejko said.
Defense attorney Thomas Zena said he would file a notice of appeal for Townsend but declined Judge Evans' offer to appoint him for the appeals phase of the case.
"I don't believe the attorney who tries the case should handle the appeal. It needs a different set of eyes," he said.
Judge Evans remanded Townsend to the Mahoning County Jail awaiting transfer to the Lorain Correctional Institution, but not before Loibl's mother and sister made impassioned and tearful victims' statements to the court.
Family of victim
"I watched the defendant for two and one-half years show absolutely no remorse" for "brutally and carelessly taking my daughter's life without even knowing who she was," said Mary Ellen Loibl, Angela's mother.
"My 9-year-old granddaughter [Angela's daughter] wants to know if he will come back and hurt me or hurt her. She wants to know who will take care of her if I die," Mary Ellen Loibl said.
"You are not capable of knowing what you took from our family. Angela will never see her daughter's first communion or see her graduate from high school. She will never hold her grandchildren. You took a part of my life, and the pain is unbearable," she told Townsend.
Angela's sister, Jamie Butcher, speaking to Townsend, said she and the rest of the family would make every effort to make sure he never gets out of prison.
"No sentence can bring Angela back, but at least he won't hurt anybody else," she said.
Townsend was convicted Tuesday after only two hours' deliberation by the jury.
Jose Rivera, who was in the T-N-T Bar on Steel Street when Angela was shot once in the head and killed, was also originally charged with aggravated murder in the case. However he pleaded to a lesser charge in exchange for his testimony in the case.
Rivera is scheduled to be sentenced at 10:30 a.m. May 21 by Judge Evans.
alcorn@vindy.com