Judge doubles original sentence

An eight-year prison term replaced a four-year deal.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Be careful what you’re asking for.

That’s the take-home message from a failed plea withdrawal request that resulted in a defendant, who fled police in a stolen pickup truck and rammed two police cars with it, receiving twice the prison sentence the prosecution, defense and police had agreed upon.

On Wednesday, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, sent Tim Vari, 54, of Sixth Street, Campbell, to prison for eight years followed by five years’ parole.

The parties had agreed to a four-year sentence when Vari pleaded guilty June 12 to two counts of felonious assault on a police officer and one count each of failure to comply with a police order, receiving stolen property and cocaine possession.

When Vari and his lawyer, Dennis DiMartino, said at the hearing that Vari wanted to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial, the judge warned he wouldn’t go along with the agreement and would impose a harsher sentence if he were to conduct a plea withdrawal hearing and deny the withdrawal request. “When somebody assaults a police officer, they’ve got to go down hard,” Judge Krichbaum said.

What happened

Police said they began the March 26 pursuit when they spotted the stolen truck on McGuffey Road. Vari sped up and drove over several East Side streets before apparent engine trouble forced him to stop on Applegate Road in Hubbard, police said.

Vari then backed into two police cars that had boxed him in and drove off before police boxed him in again on Applegate Road and arrested him around 12:15 a.m., police reports said.

Police said Vari refused to emerge from the locked truck, where he lighted a suspected crack pipe before they broke a window to remove him from the truck.

“At no time did I attempt to assault the police,” Vari told the judge. “I never meant to hurt anybody,” he added.

Vari said he had permission to drive the truck, which was undergoing repairs in an auto repair shop Vari worked for. Vari said that he could not have backed into the cruisers because the truck’s reverse gear was inoperable and that he was trapped in the vehicle by inoperable door locks.

“The evidence against the defendant was probably overwhelming,” the judge said after hearing Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor, say several police officers would testify against Vari in a trial.

Judge’s remarks

In overruling Vari’s plea-withdrawal motion, Judge Krichbaum said that Vari had effective legal counsel and that the timing of the withdrawal motion, which was made on sentencing day, was unreasonable.

“All bets are off with that. There’s no agreement now. ... I’m not going to adopt the agreed-upon sentence” of four years, the judge said before imposing eight years. Vari has a long criminal record, a pattern of drug abuse and a lack of remorse, the judge observed.

“One of the Ten Commandments should be that ‘Thou shalt not assault a police officer.’ You did that. You did it twice,” said Judge Krichbaum, who could have imposed a prison term of up to 24 years.

milliken@vindy.com