Court upholds long prison term for violent acts

Court upholds long prison term for violent acts

YOUNGSTOWN — An appellate court has upheld an 84-year prison term, citing the viciousness of a young home invader’s attack on an 83-year-old man who was beaten, robbed and left to die in a locked fruit cellar; and of a separate beating and robbery of an elderly South Side couple.

In a decision released Monday, a three-judge panel of the Seventh District Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the sentence Judge R. Scott Krichbaum imposed in August 2006 upon James Goins Jr. of the Mansfield Correctional Institution.

“Given Goins’ juvenile record and the depraved state of mind required for the commission of these offenses, it cannot be said that the public, and primarily its safety, would not benefit from having Goins incarcerated for 84 years,” the appellate judges ruled.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and at vindy.com