Ruling: Warren man must be resentenced

STAFF report

WARREN — Judge John M. Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court must resentence a former Warren man who flunked out of a religion-based drug treatment program and got a nine-year prison term for a series of burglaries across Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The 11th District Court of Appeals ruled this week that Judge Stuard must resentence Jason Kirpatrick, 30, because the judge ordered Kirkpatrick to serve nine years in prison for an offense that carries a maximum penalty of eight years.

Judge Stuard said in January he was sentencing Kirpatrick to nine years in prison for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, which carries a penalty of up to eight years in prison, and 16 one-year prison terms for 16 convictions on breaking and entering.

Judge Stuard said the 16 one-year terms would be served at the same time as the other offense — but for a total of nine years in prison.

If Judge Stuard would have ordered that any of the 16 one-year prison terms had to be served at the same time as the eight-year term, the sentence would have been legal, the court noted.