Man’s shooting of cop prompts prison term

The defendant said he had no plan or motive for the shooting.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The man who pleaded guilty to shooting an Austintown police officer on May 8, 2007, in the Mahoning Avenue Kmart parking lot has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Thursday on Carlton Sims, 23, of Glenbrook Road, Boardman, who pleaded guilty last week to an attempted aggravated murder charge with a firearm specification.

Officer Joe Wojciak, 54, who was shot at point-blank range in the collarbone area, was saved from serious injury or death by his bulletproof vest. Police think Sims’ motive was robbery.

Sims, however, said he was “troubled at the time” and had no plan or motive for the attack.

“I just want to apologize to the officer. And I think that he knows that I had no intention of inflicting any harm to him and that I was going through some unresolved issues at the time,” Sims told the judge.

His prison sentence consists of four years for the attempted murder, plus the mandatory three consecutive years for the firearm specification. A one-year sentence for a charge of vandalizing the county jail by breaking a sprinkler head, to which Sims pleaded guilty, will be concurrent with the attempted murder sentence.

The prosecution and defense agreed to recommend the seven-year sentence, which is nonappealable now that the judge has adopted it. Wojciak, who endorsed the agreed-upon prison term, was not present in court for the sentencing.

Sims, who was found sane at the time of the crime and recently declared competent to stand trial, will get credit for the 409 days he already has been incarcerated.

Sims’ lawyer, Thomas Zena, said Sims went to college and played football, but is mentally ill and needs treatment. “Help is needed for this young man,” he said.

Judge Sweeney said Sims suffers from mental illness, and that she would recommend he receive mental health treatment and serve his prison time near his family, in the Trumbull Correctional Institution.