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Man freed after plea deal
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
A North Jackson man once stood accused of five counts of rape, but he is a free man today after pleading guilty to felonious assault.
Earl Johns Jr., 40, of Thomas Drive, appeared Tuesday before Judge Lou D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for sentencing on one count of felonious assault. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but the judge gave him credit for the nearly four years he had already spent in jail.
Johns will be on probation the next three years.
He was indicted in June 2006 charged with five counts of rape. The charges involved a 6-year-old boy he knew in 2004.
Natasha Frenchko, an assistant county prosecutor, said Johns went to trial on the five rape counts and was found not guilty of four counts. The jury failed to reach a verdict on the fifth.
Frenchko said the state decided to offer a plea agreement on the fifth case because the young victim in the case could not remember most aspects of what reportedly took place and could not be reached at times to cooperate.
She also said the state only had the victim’s testimony as evidence with no DNA, witnesses or hospital statements.
Johns agreed in March 2006 to plead to one count of felonious assault instead of a second trial on the fifth count of rape.
Atty. Gary Van Brocklin, representing Johns, said, “We entered into a plea to resolve this matter most favorable to the victim and Mr. Johns, and we believe that has been done.”
Johns refused to make a statement in court.
The victim’s father was not party to the court proceedings during the trial, but told the court he is unhappy about the plea agreement, which he said is a miscarriage of justice and a mistake by the prosecutor’s office.
“Sitting before us is a predator of children. He will re-offend,” the father said.
He asked the court for a lengthy prison sentence for Johns with requirements that he register as a sex offender.
Judge D’Apolito said the prosecutor’s office does not back down from such cases. He reminded the father that the case had been to trial and that a jury found Johns not guilty of four of the five counts of rape.
“We cannot circumvent the [judicial] process. A jury has spoken, and whether there was a mistake then, I don’t know. I was not the judge over those proceedings. I am only the judge over these proceedings now,” Judge D’Apolito said.
The judge warned Johns that if he were to appear before him again, there would be no plea agreements accepted.