Sentence set for two over assault

By Ed Runyan

Both men got four-year prison terms.

YOUNGSTOWN — Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Rob Andrews told Judge Maureen A. Sweeney during a sentencing hearing Thursday in Common Pleas Court that the victims and defendants are lucky that this wasn’t a sentencing for murder.

When Robert Walton and his mother stepped forward moments later to describe the injuries inflicted upon the 29-year-old Youngstown man during a fight with two men Nov. 23, 2007, it wasn’t hard to see why.

“Doctors say he’ll never work again, never drive anymore,” said Walton’s mother, Kim Doll of Youngstown. “His life is basically over as far as he’s concerned. He sits on the couch and watches TV. He can’t care for himself.”

He was in a coma for 27 days after being assaulted by William Rotan, 30, of Youngstown-Hubbard Road, Hubbard, and Jose Reyes, Jr., 29, of Romaine Avenue, Boardman, at Walton’s Ohio Avenue home, Doll said.

For the first 12 days, doctors didn’t know if he would live.

“I can’t do nothing,” Walton then said as he stood before Judge Sweeney with a cane. “They got me all messed up. I’m very messed up. Every day I go through nothing but trouble,” he said with slurred words.

“I can’t even walk right or talk right,” he said.

“This was a brutal beating,” Andrews said. He added that Rotan and Reyes beat Walton so badly with their hands and feet that they thought Walton was dead.

In exchange for Rotan and Reyes’ pleading guilty to felonious assaults, prosecutors dropped a charge of attempted murder against each.

With a fourth man in the home, they discussed putting Walton “in a body bag and putting him in the trunk” to dispose of the body, Andrews said.

But the fourth man, a former co-worker of Walton’s, didn’t go along with Rotan and Reyes, and fled from the North Side home after being hit with a pool cue. Rotan worked at the same landscaping company with Walton and the fourth man.

It was the fourth man who called 911 to get help for Walton, while Rotan and Reyes fled and were captured eight hours later.

Defense attorneys for Rotan and Reyes put Youngstown Detective Sgt. Ronald Rodway on the witness stand during the hearing to ask him to explain the motive for the beating.

Rodway said interviews with Rotan and Reyes after their arrest indicated the men were drinking and playing pool when Walton and Rotan got into a “wrestling match” that turned violent. Reyes admitted he helped Rotan kick and punch Walton.

“It started out as horseplay,” said Rotan’s attorney, Thomas Zena, adding that the men sometimes pretended to be professional wrestlers.

Rodway said it appeared Rotan and Reyes were “quite broken up” over what had happened to their friend. At one point during the hearing, Rotan looked over at Walton and his family and said, “I love you guys, and I’m sorry.”

Judge Sweeney sentenced Rotan and Reyes to four years each in prison, plus five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service.

Each man could have received as much as 16 years for the two counts of felonious assault — one for the assault on Walton and one for the assault with the pool cue.

After the sentencing, Doll said, “In four years, their [Rotan and Reyes] life will be back to normal. Bobby’s life will never be back to normal.” Walton lives with his mother now.

Her son’s brain shifted in his skull as a result of the beating, leaving him with permanent brain damage and reduced use of limbs on one side of his body.

runyan@vindy.com