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Court reduces man’s sentence by nine years
The repeat violent-offender specification will be stricken.
YOUNGSTOWN — The 7th District Court of Appeals has shaved up to nine years off of the 42-year prison term imposed on a man who robbed four female Youngstown State University students before leading a city policeman on a vehicular pursuit and assaulting him.
In a unanimous three-judge decision released Friday, the appeals court sent the case of Willie Lee Davis, 40, of Bennington and Stewart avenues, back to Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for resentencing.
Davis robbed the first student of $25 in the parking lot near her dormitory April 22, 2007.
About 90 minutes later, he robbed the three other students in a parking lot near their on-campus apartment, took $10 and drove off in the car they had been entering.
Officer Michael Marciano spotted the car on Albert Street and stopped it in a dead end on Kimmel Street after a high-speed car chase, arresting Davis after a foot pursuit and a struggle in the woods. Police found a realistic-looking toy gun in Davis’ pocket.
Judge Evans sentenced Davis to five years for failure to comply with a police order, 18 months for assaulting a police officer and eight years on each of four robbery counts, plus four years for being a repeat violent offender, all to be served consecutively.
The repeat-offender specification stemmed from Davis’ 1995 aggravated burglary conviction but the appeals judges struck it down because the robbery convictions did not contain the required element of serious physical harm to a person.
Because of a deficiency in a jury verdict form, the appeals court also reduced the failure to comply charge from a third-degree felony carrying one to five years in prison to a first-degree misdemeanor, for which the maximum penalty is six months of incarceration.
The verdict form failed to state that the vehicular pursuit caused a substantial risk of serious physical harm to people or property and didn’t specify the degree of the offense, the appeals judges agreed.
The appeals court decision was written by Judge Joseph J. Vukovich, with Judges Gene Donofrio and Mary DeGenaro concurring.