Man sentenced to 5 years in church, tavern break-ins

The defendant pleaded guilty to five counts of breaking and entering.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Christopher J. Soroka, who the prosecution said was the principal offender in a series of church and tavern break-ins last year in Struthers and Austintown, has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the prison term Thursday on Soroka, 30, of Youngstown-Hubbard Road, Hubbard.

Soroka had pleaded guilty to five counts of breaking and entering, two counts of burglary and one count each of forgery and safe-cracking.

The prosecution dropped three theft counts, two counts of attempted safe-cracking and one count of breaking and entering in a plea agreement.

The burglaries Soroka pleaded guilty to were Oct. 13 and Nov. 4 at the Bowery, a Midlothian Boulevard Tavern.

The breaking and entering charges he pleaded guilty to pertain to unauthorized entries into The Highway Tabernacle on South Raccoon Road in Austintown on Aug. 25 or 26; Lynn Kirk Christian School in Austintown on Sept. 30 or Oct. 1; Struthers Baptist Church on Elm Street between Oct. 28 and 30; Christ Lutheran Church on Sexton Street in Struthers on Oct. 30 or 31; and Lynn Kirk Church of Christ in Austintown on Nov. 3.

The forgery charge alleges Soroka forged a check drawn on the bank account of Lynn Kirk Christian School on Oct. 1 or 2.

The safecracking charge dates to Nov. 3 or 4, but the indictment does not name a victim of that offense.

Judge Evans ordered that Soroka serve his sentence in this case concurrently with a prison term he is serving in a Trumbull County case.

A co-defendant in the Mahoning County case, Robert D. Johnson, 28, of 10th Street, Struthers, drew a three-year prison term from Judge Evans last month after he pleaded guilty to four counts of breaking and entering, two counts of burglary and one count each of theft and safe-cracking in many of the same incidents.

Items taken in the break-ins included TVs, a computer and an LCD computer monitor. Liquor bottles were taken from the tavern.