Judge sentences man guilty of burglary

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man who pleaded guilty to burglarizing a Hubbard Court home July 2 is going to prison for three years, followed by three years’ probation.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Wednesday on Jerry Baker, 51, of Nelson Avenue.

“You’re going to suffer an appropriate sanction for burglarizing this man’s home,” Judge Krichbaum told Baker. “That’s the one place of security that we should be able to rely and depend upon and retreat to.”

Baker’s lawyer, Michael Villani, asked the judge to consider imposing only probation, saying the occupant was not home when Baker entered, and nothing was taken from the home.

Villani said, however, the victim came home, found Baker in his house, and held Baker at gunpoint until police arrived.

Baker told the judge he knocked on the door of the residence and yelled for the occupant because he wanted to inquire about buying a scooter from him; the door popped open; and the occupant confronted him with a gun.

The judge said he had difficulty believing Baker was at the residence to buy something.

The judge read from a report, in which the homeowner told police he arrived home and found Baker inside his residence hunched over a television set that had been removed from its stand and placed on the floor.

Baker denied that version of events, however.

Judge Krichbaum could have sentenced Baker to up to eight years in prison.