Burglar faces possible 9-year term

By Ed Runyan

The defendant’s attorney plans to find out what went wrong at the faith-based treatment facility.

WARREN — When Jason Kirkpatrick stands before Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Nov. 20 for a probation violation hearing, there will probably be a few more people in the room than the last time he was there.

Kirkpatrick, who accepted the judge’s offer in September to attend Life Challenge, a faith-based substance abuse treatment facility in Detroit and was later dismissed from the program, now faces a possible nine-year prison sentence.

That’s the sentence Judge Stuard promised to give Kirkpatrick if the 29-year-old Trumbull County man was unable to succeed at Life Challenge.

But Jeff Hoolihan, a Warren detective who participated in a three-county task force that rooted out Kirkpatrick, two fellow burglars and 15 others in two burglary cells operating in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, says he will ask victims and investigators to attend Kirkpatrick’s next hearing to make their wishes clear.

The 28 investigators want Kirkpatrick to go to prison, Hoolihan said, citing Kirkpatrick’s conviction on 16 burglaries and a criminal history that includes nearly 10 years locked up since he turned 18.

Keith Evans, the county’s chief probation officer, said 99 percent of the time probation violation hearings are handled in a routine manner, with no testimony other than an indication from the Adult Probation Department of the violation and the defendant’s pleading guilty.

The judge then usually resentences the defendant, he said.

Joseph Fritz, Kirkpatrick’s attorney, however, said there could be more testimony involved this time.

Fritz said he will try to gain information from Life Challenge on what caused his client to be removed from the program in case the Kirkpatrick was not at fault.

All he knows so far is that Life Challenge took Kirkpatrick to a bus station so that he could return to Trumbull County, Fritz said.

“I’m assuming it was not a serious violation because they didn’t think it was so serious that they turned him over to Michigan authorities or brought him back to Warren,” Fritz said.

His understanding is that Kirkpatrick got on a bus and returned to Warren, called his probation officer as soon as he returned and then learned there was a warrant for his arrest.

Kirkpatrick was arrested Friday at his father’s house in Warren. He is in the county jail.

runyan@vindy.com