43
Defendant acts properly as he pleads guilty
The defendant was calm and courteous to the judge this time.
YOUNGS-TOWN — A defendant in a homicide case, who was disruptive in court Thursday morning, quietly pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Friday afternoon.
Michael W. Lee, 20, of Cordova Avenue, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a gun specification, aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges in the Nov. 18 shooting death of James E. Dow, 28, of South Lakeview Avenue.
Dow was found dead in the basement of 145 Thornton Ave., his feet bound with tape. Police said the motive was robbery or drug related.
In an appearance before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Lee also pleaded guilty to felonious assault on another man with a gun specification, that offense also having occurred Nov. 18.
Robert E. Bush, chief of the criminal division in the county prosecutor’s office, recommended a 30-year combined total prison sentence for Lee, who will be sentenced at 10 a.m. May 14.
Under the plea agreement, the judge said he wouldn’t exceed 30 years, but he added that “it is possible, not probable” that he would consider a lesser sentence.
In the agreement, the prosecution reduced the original aggravated-murder charge to voluntary manslaughter and dropped the gun specifications on the aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges.
Lee, arrested in Allentown, Pa., and returned to Youngstown, was indicted in December in this case, together with Edward Taylor II, 19, of Hudson Avenue, and Aaron Sherrod, 21, of Stockbridge, Ga.
On Thursday, Lee refused to enter the courtroom for his final pretrial hearing and deputies dragged him into the courtroom, where he shouted obscenities at the judge.
Deputies then subdued and restrained him and held him upright before following the judge’s order to put duct tape over his mouth.
In contrast, on Friday, Lee was calm and courteous to the judge, answering “Yes, sir” and “No, sir,” to the judge’s questions during the plea. Lee told the judge he understood the charges and was satisfied with his legal representation.
As a precaution, Lee was strapped into a low-slung wheelchair and wheeled into the courtroom Friday, with six deputies standing guard during the hearing, but Lee was not gagged and had no duct tape over his face.
Although Lee declined to cooperate Friday morning with a competency evaluation at the county jail, where he is being held, the judge granted Lee’s request that he be given another opportunity to undergo an evaluation before his sentencing.
milliken@vindy.com