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Judge imposes jail sentence
YOUNGSTOWN
A 27-year-old city woman will spend time in prison for a New Year’s Day altercation involving a gun at a South Side bar and restaurant.
Amber Grimm, 27, of Madison Avenue, appeared for sentencing Wednesday before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Grimm initially had been charged with two counts of aggravated burglary, but entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in March where she pleaded guilty to only one count of aggravated burglary with a gun specification.
In the plea agreement, Robert J. Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor, reduced the firearm specification from three years to one year and recommended Grimm serve a three-year prison term for the aggravated burglary. The sentences will be served consecutively.
Judge Sweeney imposed the agreed-upon four-year sentence. Grimm will be given credit for the 124 days she has spent in the county jail while the case worked its way through the legal system.
Atty. Mark Lavelle, representing Grimm, explained to the jude why his client agreed to take the plea deal.
“Amber was anxious to get some assistance or some type of help. She needs mental-health issues addressed, drug issues addressed and maybe some job skills,” Lavelle said.
Grimm declined the opportunity to make any statement before Judge Sweeney handed down the sentence.
Grimm will be eligible for judicial release from prison as early as January, but Lavelle said she is not eligible for release to the Community Corrections Association in Youngstown because of her mental-health issues and history of arrest.
He said the next several months will be spent finding Grimm somewhere to receive help upon her release from prison.
Grimm told police she broke a window and the front door to enter the Dragon Palace Bar and Restaurant on South Avenue at 5:10 a.m., after she was refused admission. Once inside, she said she fired several shots into the air with a handgun. Nobody was injured by the gunfire.
Grimm said several men jumped her when she left the bar and that she fired again as they disarmed her.
Grimm was treated for facial cuts she said she received when one of the men took the gun from her and pistol-whipped her.
Police never recovered the gun.
The manager said he locked the establishment at closing time and let a few family members stay.
He said he heard a window break and saw Grimm fire three or four shots once she entered while about 25 people were in the bar. Police found a spent slug and a 9mm casing and a fresh bullet hole in the bar.