Man in conflict with repo men pleads guilty

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A Draper Street Southeast man who pulled a gun and took back the 2002 Buick LeSabre that repo men took from him last March has pleaded guilty to robbery and three unrelated drug charges and agreed to spend two years in prison.

Raheean N. Butler, 28, appeared in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Monday for a trial on the robbery charge but instead pleaded guilty to reduced charges of robbery and a specification that he used a firearm in the commission of his crime.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated possession of drugs, possession of drugs and possession of cocaine. He was indicted on the drug charges — accusing him of possessing the drugs Ecstacy, Hydrocodone and cocaine — in 2008.

Butler was free on bond awaiting trial on those charges in March 2009, when Michael Pasqualetti of Bath, Ohio, came to Warren to repossess Butler’s car.

Pasqualetti found the car in a driveway on Oak Knoll Avenue Southeast, called for assistance from a repo man from Deerfield, Ohio, hooked up the Buick to his tow truck, and took it a short distance away to secure the car differently when Butler approached him, Warren police said.

Butler ran toward the two repo men and shouted for them to give back his car.

Pasqualetti noticed that Butler had his hand in his sweatshirt pocket. Then he saw Butler pull a pistol out and point it at him, Pasqualetti said.

Pasqualetti “took off running as [he] kept yelling at the gunman not to shoot,” a Warren police report said.

Butler jumped into the tow truck and drove away — with the Buick still in tow, police said. Warren police arrested Butler a short time later.

Initially, Butler’s robbery charge carried a penalty of more than 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to a charge that carried a possible penalty of more than five years. The drug charges could have added eight more years in prison.

Judge John M. Stuard will sentence Butler on Feb. 18.