Ex-inmate gets 9 years for attack on deputy

YOUNGSTOWN — A former Mahoning County Jail inmate who helped another inmate attack a deputy sheriff with a boiling hot oil concoction has been sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the attack.

Wayne A. Castle Jr., 26, of West Wood Street, pleaded guilty last month to felonious assault on a police officer for the March 11, 2006, incident.

He received his sentence Friday in Judge James C. Evans’ courtroom in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. It will run at the same time as the 20-year sentence he received in the same court in May 2006 for raping two girls, ages 3 and 7, in November 2003.

Michael A. Jones, 21, of Fourth Street, Struthers, Castle’s cell mate, received the same nine-year sentence for his role in the attack.

Timothy Franken, chief trial lawyer in the county prosecutor’s office, said Castle lured Deputy Kevin Vivacqua to his cell by pushing a call button. Castle also provided ingredients for the concoction and Jones heated it in a microwave oven, Franken said.

Jones carried out the attack by throwing the concoction of mineral oil, shaving cream, deodorant and cleaning fluid on the deputy and removing the radio from the deputy's belt and beating the deputy with it.

Vivacqua, who has been off duty on workers’ compensation since the attack, told Judge Evans at Jones’ sentencing that the burns were painful and he suffered eye hemorrhaging, headaches and dizziness.

He said the liquid caused scarring that has caused him embarrassment and that his law enforcement career is “on hold.”