Burglar gets maximum of 18 months in prison

Burglars should serve plenty of prison time, the judge said.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Judge R. Scott Krichbaum gave a Willis Avenue man the maximum sentence -- 18 months in prison -- after a jury convicted him of burglarizing the home of a homicide victim, just two days after he was gunned down on the city's South Side.
Floyd Robinson, 35, drew the sentence in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after the six-man, six-woman jury returned its verdict Wednesday after 21/4 hours of deliberations at the end of a 11/2-day trial.
The jury found Robinson guilty of burglarizing the Idora Avenue home of Martwain Dill at about 5:30 a.m. Nov. 5. Dill, 23, was shot to death in broad daylight Nov. 3 in a pickup truck at Glenwood and Earle avenues.
J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor, recommended the maximum sentence, but defense lawyer, Douglas King, asked the judge to consider probation or the six-month minimum prison sentence. Robinson, who previously served prison time twice for domestic violence, told the judge he has nine children and said he was hoping he could be sent to a community corrections program.
Judge Krichbaum said Robinson appears to have taken advantage of the opportunity provided by Dill's death. "I think people should spend a lot of time in the penitentiary when they invade someone else's castle," the judge said.
Here were the arguments
Robinson and his co-defendant, Willie Shakoor, 36, of St. Louis Avenue, intended to steal Dill's belongings, which were piled up in bags in the kitchen, Thompson said, calling the jury verdict a "common sense decision."
But King said Robinson was a longtime friend of the deceased and had permission to be in Dill's house and that Shakoor had a key to the premises. King said an appeal will be filed on Robinson's behalf.
Shakoor, who was also charged with burglary, pleaded guilty Jan. 17 to a reduced charge of breaking and entering, and the prosecution recommended a probation sentence in exchange for the testimony Shakoor gave Tuesday against Robinson. Shakoor could get up to a year in prison. His sentencing is set for 9 a.m. March 20 before Judge Krichbaum.
Did not have permission
Dill's mother, Christina Dill, of Youngstown, said in a telephone interview after Robinson was sentenced that Robinson and Shakoor did not have permission to enter Dill's house, that their presence there on Nov. 5 indicated they had no respect for him, and that she wants Shakoor to serve the maximum sentence.
"I'm the only one that could give the OK," for anyone to be on the premises, she said, adding that she doesn't know how Shakoor got the key.
If Robinson and Shakoor thought they had permission to be there, she wondered aloud why Shakoor hid in the fruit cellar and Robinson dived through the front window when police arrived at the burglary scene, according to police reports.
She also complained that the prosecutor's office didn't notify her in advance of Robinson's trial, but Thompson said a member of the prosecutor's office staff informed her of the trial earlier this week. Thompson said his office will notify her in advance of Shakoor's sentencing, at which she will have an opportunity to make a victim impact statement.