Judge resentences robber to 21 years

The defendant had gone through a police checkpoint before the robbery.

WARREN — A 47-year-old Youngstown man was sentenced to 21 years in prison — the same sentence that he’d received two years ago.

Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Anthony J. Smith on Tuesday to 13 years for aggravated robbery with a gun specification, three years for being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon and five additional years for being a repeat offender. The sentences will run consecutively.

Smith was found guilty Jan. 26 of the Sept. 11, 2004, robbery of the BP station at Belmont Avenue and Gypsy Lane in Liberty Township.

Smith was originally found guilty of the same charges in 2005, but the 11th District Court of Appeals sent the case back for retrial because Judge Logan hadn’t instructed the earlier jury to consider the lesser-included offense of robbery.

During the new trial, Smith was identified by the BP employee who was robbed and by Liberty police Patrol Officer Pete DeAngelo.

DeAngelo was in the area of the robbery because he was working a police checkpoint near the intersection, and Smith had gone through it along with his getaway driver, Lawrence J. Johnson. Johnson was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison.

Defense attorney Michael Partlow of Cleveland argued that Smith wasn’t involved in the robbery.

When Smith was captured a short time after the theft, he had $115 on him — the same amount that was taken in the robbery — in the same denominations. The 9mm semiautomatic pistol he had matched the description of the one used in the robbery.