Saturday, April 21, 2007
The victim wanted his assailant to serve 20 years.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 55-year-old West Chalmers Avenue man will spend 10 years in prison on rape and kidnapping charges.
Upon his release from prison, Ronald Kolb also must report his address to authorities every 90 days.
Judge Maureen A. Cronin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Kolb on Friday after a jury convicted him last month of the rape and kidnapping of a 22-year-old man with cerebral palsy.
The reporting requirement stems from the judge's determination that Kolb is a sexual predator.
During her opening statement in the trial, Dawn Krueger, an assistant county prosecutor, said that Kolb abducted the victim July 29, 2006, when the victim emerged from the back of the Mahoning Avenue bar where he worked.
Kolb took the victim in his car to a nearby restaurant parking lot, where the sex act occurred at gunpoint, her opening statement said.
The jury found Kolb innocent of firearms specifications.
Krueger had recommended and the victim requested that Kolb be sentenced to 10 years on each charge to be served consecutively, or 20 years in prison.
What judge said
The judge ordered the 10-year sentences be served concurrently, saying the acts may be considered under the law as "similar and allied offenses."
Kolb received credit for the 266 days he's spent in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.
Kolb, who was represented by Atty. Dennis A. DiMartino, said he is a born-again Christian and maintained that no crime occurred.
"I was found guilty not because of a crime but because I'm a homosexual," he said.
His criminal record dates to 1971 and includes convictions for aggravated assault that had been pleaded down from rape, theft, possession of criminal tools and auto theft.
"I'm offended that you would hold yourself out as a born-again Christian and quote the Bible," Judge Cronin said. "You never found religion until you were before the bench."