Shooter draws 10-year sentence

Disappearing witnesses led to a plea deal.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A South Truesdale Avenue man is sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting a man to death at an East Side duplex.

Lamar Hough, 20, drew the sentence Thursday from Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the Oct. 21, 2007, slaying of Elmer Antonio Avilez-Landaverde.

A murder charge against Hough was reduced to involuntary manslaughter.

Hough pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge with a gun specification, and the judge sentenced Hough to three years on the gun specification, followed by seven years for the manslaughter.

Hough, who apologized for his actions, will get credit for the 11 months he has already been jailed awaiting court action in this case.

The sentence is nonappealable because it was agreed to by the prosecution and defense and adopted by the judge. After prison, Hough will be on parole for five years.

In a plea agreement, Kasey C. Shidel, assistant county prosecutor, dismissed two counts of robbery that named two other men as victims; and he dismissed charges of aggravated burglary and improperly discharging a firearm at or into a house, both pertaining to Avilez-Landaverde’s Shehy Street residence, where the shooting occurred.

The two men who were named in the dismissed robbery counts have disappeared, Shidel said, adding that he made the plea deal because of a lack of witnesses to testify in a trial.

“We were actually fortunate to get a plea on this case with the evidentiary issues that we were faced with,” Shidel said. Although a 10-year sentence for a slaying isn’t ideal, Shidel said: “We at least kept this guy [Hough] behind bars for 10 years and rendered some justice in this case.”

Avilez-Landaverde, who police said was likely an illegal immigrant, was robbed after returning home from his job at a Wilson Avenue pallet-making business, police said.

Avilez-Landaverde was found shot to death in his rear yard. A blood trail led from the hallway to the rear door and onto the porch. A .25-caliber handgun was found on the kitchen floor near the hallway.

Detectives said their investigation was slowed because many of the people they came across in the probe spoke very little English.