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Marino released from prison
His lawyer says GM is holding Marino’s job open.
YOUNGSTOWN — A major player in a 15-member theft ring has been released from prison after serving just over two months of his two-year prison term.
Over the objection of Kasey Shidel, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, Visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court released Timothy Marino, 42, of Ridge Road, Cortland, on Monday.
Judge Curran had sentenced Marino in February after Marino pleaded guilty to nine counts of receiving stolen property for buying items such as trailers and all-terrain vehicles the ring members stole.
Marino is one of three ring members who, at the time of the thefts, were working at General Motors in Lordstown. Orders were taken from co-workers there for items they wanted to buy and relayed to thieves in the ring, police said.
“Do not mistake kindness for weakness,” Judge Curran told Marino, warning him that he’ll go back to prison to complete his full sentence if he violates his five years of probation.
Judge Curran said Marino will undergo periodic alcohol and drug testing and must maintain full-time employment, keep his child support payments current and perform 200 hours of community service.
Shidel, who argued it was too early to release Marino, noted that the prosecution had already given him a break by dropping a racketeering charge that could have landed him in prison for eight additional years.
“Without him, these items wouldn’t have been sold to third parties. He was the fence. When stuff was stolen, it was taken to him, and he’d find a willing buyer,” Shidel said after court.
“It was the worst experience of my life,” Marino said of his time in the Lorain Correctional Center, adding that he was “like an animal, locked up” in a cage.
Marino told the judge he plans to return to work and promised to stay out of trouble.
His lawyer, John Fowler, said GM is holding his job open for him.
Saying that Marino had cooperated with authorities and helped them recover about $300,000 in stolen items, Fowler argued that Marino had been locked up long enough.
In a tearful statement, Danielle Sulick of Cortland, mother of Marino’s 10-year-old daughter, told the judge Marino is “a wonderful father’’ and has always provided for their daughter, who is an honor-roll student.