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Plea deal locks up robber 6 years
Harmon’s DNA wasn’t found on the bulletproof vest that came off in the struggle.
YOUNGSTOWN — A violent home invader, whose victims whacked him with a ceremonial ax and shot him, is going to prison for six years.
Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Thursday on Derrick J. Harmon, 29, of Council Rock Avenue, immediately after Harmon entered his guilty pleas.
Harmon pleaded guilty to two counts each of aggravated robbery and kidnapping with a firearm specification.
Under the plea agreement, Harmon will serve concurrent three-year prison terms for each of those offenses, plus three consecutive years for the firearm specification, for a total of six years; and he won’t be eligible for early release by the judge.
The nonappealable deal was made by Robert E. Bush, chief of the criminal division of the county prosecutor’s office; Harmon; and his lawyer, J. Gerald Ingram, and it was adopted by the judge.
“We think the sentence was appropriate,” Bush said. “He did plead as charged to the robberies and the kidnapping,” and the gun specification, Bush said of Harmon.
Without elaborating, Bush also said the deal was justified because some case facts and investigation results may have affected the state’s ability to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt in a jury trial.
Sometimes accepting a plea agreement, which guarantees a conviction and a sentence, is better for the prosecution than taking the risk of a trial, whose outcome would be uncertain, Bush explained.
Bush agreed to drop felonious- assault and aggravated-burglary charges and body armor and repeat violent offender specifications against Harmon.
The felonious assault and aggravated burglary were extensions of the robbery and kidnapping, Bush observed.
The body armor specification, which would have added two years to the sentence, might have been difficult to prove because Harmon’s DNA wasn’t found on the bulletproof vest he is alleged to have lost in the struggle and left at the scene, Bush said.
The repeat violent offender specification would have added one to 10 years, but only if the judge had imposed a maximum sentence on one of the underlying charges, Bush said.
Bush also agreed to dismiss a separate police pursuit case, in which Harmon was charged with failure to comply with a police order.
In the June 11, 2007, home invasion, the gun-toting Harmon, allegedly wearing a mask and bulletproof vest, forced his way into the Belden Avenue home of Forrest Adams, whose 13-year-old son was visiting at the time.
Adams suffered knife wounds to his left hand and upper arm, which were inflicted by a kitchen knife the intruder snatched after dropping his gun.
In the struggle, Adams cut Harmon with a heavy ceremonial ax; Adams’ son shot the unwanted visitor.
Adams could not be reached to comment on Thursday’s plea deal.
When Harmon’s bond in the home invasion case was reduced from $1 million to $25,000, he posted it and was released from jail in August 2007.
The next month, police said they spotted Harmon speeding recklessly on Griffith Street and pursued him.
Harmon lost control of the car he was driving, struck a utility pole, jumped out, ran, vaulted a fence and was found hiding near an apartment building, police said.
That pursuit led to the failure-to- comply charge, which was dropped in the plea deal, and to immediate revocation of Harmon’s bond by Judge Evans.
In October 1998, with his name spelled “Harman,” he was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to assault and three counts of aggravated robbery with a gun specification. He was released in November 2006 on five years’ parole.
In May 2007, under the Harmon spelling, he pleaded no contest to theft in Boardman and received one year’s probation.
milliken@vindy.com