Warren lawyer will spend 20 days in jail

LISBON — A Warren attorney has been ordered to turn himself in to the Columbiana County Jail on Halloween to serve 20 days for contempt of court for his behavior in a murder case.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge C. Ashley Pike imposed the sentence Thursday on George Kafantaris.

The lawyer is to report between 6 and 7 p.m.

The judge imposed two 10-day contempt sentences, and ordered that Kafantaris pay the cost of his incarceration. The cost wasn’t determined. A court official said the county would bill the attorney.

Kafantaris made an oral bid to stay the sentence, but Judge Pike denied it.

The lawyer can ask the 7th District Court of Appeals to stay the sentence.

Kafantaris previously had asked the appeals court to stay the judge’s contempt finding. The appeals court dismissed the appeal, noting that Judge Pike hadn’t imposed a sentence.

Kafantaris represented Andrew Irwin, 26, of East Liverpool, who was convicted of stabbing Emily Foreman, 21, to death on Aug. 23, 2006, in Liverpool Township to get drugs.

Irwin was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

As the jury was returning with its verdict, Kafantaris announced he knew the identity of the real killer. Judge Pike found Kafantaris in contempt.

At a later hearing, tests by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation discounted claims that someone else killed Foreman.

At that hearing, county Prosecutor Robert Herron and Assistant Prosecutor John Gamble repeatedly protested that the Warren attorney was badgering his own witnesses and asking questions about unsigned affidavits from people claiming to have new information. The judge found the lawyer in contempt again.