7-year sentence in Youngstown shooting case

YOUNGSTOWN -- A man charged in a June 20, 2004, drive-by shooting is going to prison for seven years.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Wednesday on Francisco Bermudez, 32, of Grover Street, Masury.
Bermudez, who apologized in court to the victim and his family, pleaded guilty in March to felonious assault with a firearm specification in the wounding of Aaron J. Gump, 26, of Belden Avenue, who was shot as he sat in his driveway.
The nonappealable sentence, agreed to by the prosecution and defense, consists of six years for the felonious assault and one year for the gun specification and will be followed by three years of parole.
The shooting followed a brawl concerning a near-collision in traffic, according to J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor.
A witness told police he saw a man firing a shotgun out the side door of a van.
"Thank God, he only had birdshot in that gun," rather than heavier shot, Bermudez's lawyer, Gary VanBrocklin, said of his client after court.
Gump was hit by dozens of pellets in his face, arms and side. The pellets had to be removed from his body, Thompson said after court.