Judge denies inmate release

A man sent to prison for reckless homicide will stay there.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A Liberty Road man sentenced to five years in prison in April 2007 for his role in a rolling East Side gunbattle, in which a teenager was killed 31‚Ñ2 years ago, has been denied judicial release.

Without explanation, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court overruled Tiburcio Cruz’s request for early release in a judgment entry filed Tuesday.

Through his lawyer, Pete Klimis, Cruz said he’s not likely to re-offend and asked to be released on probation.

But J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor, argued against judicial release, saying state law bars Cruz’s release before April 2011, when he will have served four years of his prison term.

Cruz, 31, pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in the shooting death of Deandre B. Edwards, 18, of Woodcrest Avenue, and to felonious assault. Judge Krichbaum sentenced him to simultaneous four-year terms for the homicide and felonious assault, with a one-year gun specification to be served consecutively.

In the June 30, 2005, shooting spree that fatally wounded Edwards, Ruth Slattery, 93, and James Christian, 17, were shot in their right legs from a car traveling along Grandview Avenue. Slattery was hit while she sat in her kitchen.

The prosecution agreed to reduce the murder charge against Cruz because witnesses to the shooting, who might have testified in a trial, disappeared or refused to cooperate with authorities.

Last September, Judge Krichbaum denied the request of co-defendant William Aponte, 46, of Liberty Road, for judicial release. The judge had sentenced Aponte, who is Cruz’s uncle, to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm at or into a habitation.

The prosecution said Cruz was the shooter and Aponte was the driver during the gunfight, in which Aponte was shot in the head. Police said the gunbattle stemmed from a feud between families.

Police reports and court papers are unclear as to who shot Aponte.