Jury takes 14 minutes to find man guilty

YOUNGSTOWN — A judge has sent a rapist back to prison for eight years after a jury, which deliberated for 14 minutes, convicted him of escape for making an unauthorized trip to Chicago while on parole.

Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the maximum sentence on Henry Shannon, 49, of Oregon Trail, immediately after Tuesday’s jury verdict in the two-day trial.

Shannon, a registered violent sexual predator who was imprisoned for a 1989 Ohio rape conviction, was indicted on charges of escape for making the trip in violation of a condition of his parole stating that he could not leave Ohio without his parole officer’s permission.

Having been paroled in 2004, Shannon made the unapproved trip to Chicago on Sept. 15, 2005, within two days after Girard police interviewed him concerning an unrelated matter, said Dawn P. Krueger, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.

Defense lawyer Walter D. Ritchie said Shannon had rejected a prosecution offer to recommend a four-year sentence if he would plead guilty to the escape charge. A lawyer for 12 years, Ritchie called it “out of the ordinary” for a jury to render a verdict so quickly, but he observed that it was “a pretty straightforward case.”

For more, see Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com