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Third man sentenced in murder
A nearly 3-year-old case vanished in 10 minutes.
YOUNGSTOWN — The case of a defendant in a burglary and murder, who was jailed more than 1,000 days awaiting trial, ended Tuesday in a 10-minute combined plea and sentencing hearing instead of a trial.
After pleading guilty to murder and aggravated burglary with a gun specification, James Huff, 23, drew an 18-years-to-life prison sentence from Judge Maureen A. Sweeney for the murder of James Rowles, 66, of Trussit Avenue. Rowles was shot in the head during an Aug. 9, 2005, burglary in his house, which was later set ablaze.
Huff, also of Trussit Avenue, had spent 1,019 days in Mahoning County Jail, awaiting his jury trial that was to have begun Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The 18-year sentence, jointly recommended by Robert Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, and Huff’s lawyer, Mark Lavelle, consists of 15-years-to-life for the murder and a mandatory consecutive three years for the gun specification.
A 10-year aggravated-burglary term is to be concurrent with the murder sentence. Huff will get credit for all the time he has already been jailed.
In a plea agreement, Andrews reduced the homicide charge from aggravated murder to simple murder and dropped an aggravated-arson charge.
The fire was set the day after Rowles died to destroy the evidence of the earlier crimes, Andrews said. Firefighters found Rowles’ body in his house. All three defendants confessed their roles in the burglary, Andrews added.
Huff was the last of the defendants to plead guilty and be sentenced in this case.
A co-defendant, Frederick A. Rice, 31, of Ferndale Avenue, who pleaded guilty to the same charges, got the same 18 years-to-life sentence last year.
The other co-defendant, Jimmy Davenport, 30, of Kensington Avenue, pleaded guilty to murder and burglary with a gun specification and received a 20-year prison term in February. Andrews said he recommended more prison time for Davenport because Davenport was the shooter.
The long delay in concluding the case was because of a change in defense lawyers for Huff and because of the need for a mental competency evaluation for Davenport, Andrews said. Despite his low IQ, Davenport was found competent to stand trial.
All three defendants were indicted together; and court action for all three was delayed until Davenport’s competency was determined, Andrews explained.
Andrews said he made the plea agreement because he would have had difficulty proving in a trial that Davenport purposely killed Rowles. Intentional killing is an essential element of an aggravated-murder charge.
When he confessed to police, Davenport simply said the gun discharged, Andrews noted, adding that the other defendants didn’t see the shooting because they were elsewhere in the house.
Andrews also said he would have had trouble proving the aggravated-arson charge because Rowles was already dead when the fire was set. An aggravated-arson charge means the intentionally set fire must cause a substantial risk of physical harm to a person, he noted.
Each defendant blamed the other two for setting the fire, so it would have been difficult to prove who set the fire, Andrews added.
Lavelle told the judge the crime began as a burglary and that the defendants didn’t expect to find anyone home.
“In his world, a burglary is not that big a deal, but it sure turned out that way, and now he’s going to face the music,” Lavelle said of his client. “Events got away from him, and now, here he is,” Lavelle added.
“I’m sorry for what happened. I never meant for any of this to happen,” Huff told the judge. “If I was able to take it back, I would, but I can’t,” he added.