Cleveland man gets 8 years for child rape

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A 42-year-old Cleveland man drew an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to raping a girl in 2006 while she was 7 and 8 years old.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Friday on Edson D. Halk, who will be required to register as a sex offender quarterly with the sheriff for life after he leaves prison.

After an investigation by Springfield Township Police, Halk was indicted by the Mahoning County grand jury on three counts of rape involving the same girl between 2006 and 2008.

Under a plea agreement, the prosecution dropped two of the rape counts and removed the life-prison-sentence specification from the one to which Halk pleaded guilty. Halk will be on parole for five years after he leaves prison.

In another case, also on Friday, Judge Krichbaum imposed a one-year prison term on Samuel Lee Harper, 40, formerly of Steven Drive, Beloit, in connection with a Dec. 15, 2007, fire that destroyed Gator’s Pub, 179 N. 15th St., Sebring.

Harper was indicted on an aggravated-arson charge, but he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of attempted arson.

J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor, said he made the plea deal because the evidence linking Harper to the fire was weak and because nobody was hurt.

Harper set furniture ablaze in a second-floor apartment over the bar, and bar patrons safely evacuated the building, Thompson said. The motive for the fire is unknown, he added.

The fire occurred before Judge John M. Durkin of the same court sent Harper to prison for 14 months last September after finding that Harper violated his probation on a cocaine-trafficking charge.

Judge Krichbaum made Harper’s sentence on the attempted-arson charge consecutive to Judge Durkin’s sentence.

Friday’s sentences for Halk and Harper are nonappealable because they were agreed to by the prosecution and defense and adopted by the judge.