Man guilty of felonious assault

YOUNGSTOWN — A 10-woman, two-man jury has convicted a West Side man of one count of felonious assault against his live-in girlfriend, but it acquitted him of a second felonious assault count.

On Thursday, Billy Mock, 41, of North Richview Avenue, was found guilty of a felonious assault count alleging he caused serious physical harm to a woman in a beating March 27, 2007, in his residence.

However, the jury acquitted Mock of a felonious-assault count that alleged he beat her with a deadly weapon, namely a fireplace poker, on the same date.

Mock, who was returned to Mahoning County jail, faces two to eight years in prison when he is sentenced next week by Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Robert E. Bush Jr., chief of the criminal division in the county prosecutor’s office, said the motive for the assault is undetermined.

After five hours of deliberations, the jury rendered its verdict to Magistrate Wade Smith. The trial began Monday.

The woman suffered neck injuries, a damaged spleen, and bruises throughout her body and was spitting up blood when she was treated in an emergency room after the beating and still faces back surgery because of her injuries, Bush said.

Mock’s brother, Bobby Joe Mock, 39, of Austintown, was sentenced to 41‚Ñ2 years in prison on charges stemming from a nine-hour standoff with police last July at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty and was one of 15 people indicted last month in an alleged major theft and conspiracy ring.