Man gets probation for abduction

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

An East Side man will spend three years on probation for charges related to the abduction of and domestic violence against the mother of his children.

Phillip Anderson, 20, of Woodcrest Avenue, appeared before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court earlier this week for sentencing on charges of domestic violence and abduction.

Anderson, in a plea agreement with prosecutors reached in January, pleaded guilty to the domestic violence and abduction charges. A kidnapping charge was dismissed.

Anderson could have been sentenced to up to five years on the abduction charge and up to 18 months on the domestic-violence charge.

Carla Baldwin Fields, an assistant county prosecutor, said Anderson invited the mother of his children to his East Side home, and the adults got into a physical altercation last year.

She said the woman called police, but Anderson refused to let the woman leave an area of the home once police arrived.

Fields said the victim in the case asked that any plea agreement include some form of treatment for Anderson. The victim did not necessarily want Anderson to spend time in prison, Fields said.

“I spoke with the victim, and because he is the father of her children, she wanted him to get help for his anger-management issues,” she said.

Anderson had been placed in an in-house treatment program before sentencing, and Judge Krichbaum ordered him to successfully complete that program. He also ordered that Anderson have no contact with the victim or her family.