MAHONING COUNTY Youngstown man is sent to prison for raping boy

By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 52-year-old Dryden Avenue man who was caught molesting a 10-year-old boy was sent to prison for four years Tuesday. James D. Robinson Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of rape in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He was immediately sentenced by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Krueger said Robinson was performing a sex act on the boy, to whom he is related, at a house on Liberty Street in December 2001 when the boy's aunt walked in and saw them.
A county grand jury secretly indicted Robinson in April 2002 on a charge of rape with a life imprisonment specification. Under Ohio law, adults convicted of using force, or threat or force, to rape a child younger than 13 can be sentenced to life in prison.
As part of a plea agreement, Judge Sweeney dismissed the life specification at the recommendation of Krueger and defense attorney J. Gerald Ingram. They also recommended the four-year sentence, which the judge imposed with a $2,500 fine.
Ingram and Krueger said the plea agreement spared the victim having to testify about the ordeal during a trial.
Krueger said the victim was willing to testify, but she was concerned that he would "not be able to undergo the pressure of a full trial." The boy has been in counseling, she said.
Robinson, who wore a size 6X Mahoning County jail inmate's uniform, spoke softly during the proceedings. Four of his family members sat in the front row of the courtroom. Neither the victim nor his family were in court for the hearing.
Judge Sweeney also ruled that Robinson's conviction makes him a sexually oriented offender.
That means that after his release from prison, he must register his address with the county sheriff every year for 10 years.
bjackson@vindy.com