MAHONING COUNTY Judge sentences man to prison in beating case

The Austintown man got a two-year prison sentence.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Johnny Donald Jr. admitted beating and bloodying a man with a piece of aluminum siding, but said the other man swung at him first with a cane.
"He struck the first blow," Donald told a judge Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
But Donald's story didn't jibe with a police report about the beating, and Judge R. Scott Krichbaum sent Donald to prison for two years.
Donald, 35, of Rhode Island Drive, Austintown, pleaded guilty in June to one count of felonious assault. Authorities say he beat 54-year-old Charles Rivers with the aluminum siding in April, sending Rivers to a hospital for stitches to close deep wounds in his head and hands.
What happened
Donald said Rivers lived at the Rhode Island address with him and his fianc & eacute;e, who were in the process of moving out. Donald had gone to get some of his personal effects from the house when he got into an argument with Rivers.
"We argued and it escalated. He put his hands on me," Donald told the judge. "I told him he doesn't know me well enough to put his hands on me like that."
Donald said Rivers swung at him with a cane, which he used for walking.
But Judge Krichbaum said a police report indicated that Donald became enraged and started flailing at Rivers with the aluminum siding. Rivers used his cane to fend off the blows, the judge said, reading from the report.
Defense attorney Martin Yavorcik asked the judge to place Donald on probation and order him into anger management counseling, but the judge opted instead to impose the minimum prison term.
Assistant Prosecutor Patrick R. Pochiro said Donald's fianc & eacute;e is Rivers' niece.
bjackson@vindy.com