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Young arsonists to spend year in jail
YOUNGSTOWN
Peter Sahagun and Dustin Rogers will each spend the next year behind bars as payment for setting fire to abandoned homes in search of valuable pipes inside the walls.
Sahagun, 21, of North Schenley Avenue, and Rogers, 22, of North Richview Avenue, appeared Tuesday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for sentencing. Both men had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of arson.
Judge Krichbaum sentenced each man to six months in prison on each of the two arson charges. Sahagun will get credit for the 109 days he spent in Mahoning County jail. Rogers will receive credit for the 113 days he spent in the jail.
J. Michael Thompson, an assistant county prosecutor, said Sahagun and Rogers set fire to a home on Hazelwood Avenue and another home on Oakwood Avenue in hopes of taking the piping inside the walls. Prosecutors did not offer a recommendation for any sentence on the pair.
Lawyers for both men asked the court to consider a sentence that did not include jail time.
Atty. Mark Carfolo, representing Sahagun, told the court his client is not mentally competent enough to have been the leader in the arson-pipe stealing venture.
“He was there and did participate to some degree. We are not minimizing what he did, but he is, for lack of a better term, somewhat of a backward young man. He is not a leader by any stretch of the imagination,” Carfolo said.
Sahagun told the court he has been working with a fire restoration company to see what damage is caused by arson. He also said he has been doing service to the community while out on bond.
Atty. Mark Lavelle, representing Rogers, said his client was helpful in pointing Youngstown fire investigators in the right direction on other unsolved arsons and does deserve credit for those efforts. He said after such an incident all one can do is attempt to make amends and his client has done that.
“I have learned a lot through the mistakes I made,” Rogers said. “I know I can’t keep making those mistakes.”
Court records show Rogers has previous arrests for breaking and entering and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Judge Krichbaum said he is not sure what lesson has been learned by the men. He said any lesson should have been learned after setting the first fire before the second house was set ablaze.
Judge Krichbaum said he thinks about the firefighters who risked their safety to put out each fire the pair started and the devastation to the West Side neighborhoods where the houses are located.
“This is big time. I presided over a case where some boy set fire to a house to scare someone and instead killed six people. This is a bad thing,” the judge said. “I don’t think this is a probational offense. ... This is felonious assault upon an entire community.”