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Woman gets probation in hammer attack
YOUNGSTOWN
A Youngstown woman will spend the next year on probation and perform community service as a consequence of beating her former boyfriend with a hammer.
Shanique McGee, 22, of Buckeye Court appeared Tuesday for sentencing before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. McGee previously pleaded guilty to charges of felonious assault and violation of a protection order.
Nicholas Brevetta, an assistant county prosecutor, asked the court to follow the recommendation of probation as stated in the plea agreement with McGee. He said the victim, her former boyfriend, was contacted but chose not to appear in court.
McGee beat her former boyfriend with a hammer outside his Elm Street residence on the North Side on March 29, 2010. A co-defendant, Lashonna Shakoor of Dogwood Lane, was convicted of beating the man with a tire iron in the same incident. Shakoor also received probation.
Atty. John B. Juhasz, representing McGee, said his client is sorry about her actions, but he questioned whether the man was truly a victim in the case. He said the assault stemmed from back-and-forth issues between the couple. His client was often not the aggressor, he added.
Juhasz told the judge McGee has paid a hefty price — a felony conviction and loss of her dreams of becoming a nurse — to learn her lesson.
“Miss McGee is someone you will not see again,” he told the Judge Durkin. “She did this. She was wrong, and she knows it. ... She lost her head and did something stupid. She is remorseful, and now has the insight to know you have to stop and think when you get mad.”
McGee tearfully told the judge the experience has been life changing for her, but she has been telling others about the consequences of her actions and wants to continue doing so.
“I am not going to really be able to do anything I wanted to do in life except tell my story,” McGee said. “I would not wish this on my worst enemy. It is horrible.”
Judge Durkin sentenced McGee to one-year probation and ordered her to perform community service by speaking to others about her experience and the cost of her mistake.
The judge warned McGee any violation of her probation could land her in prison for up to 111/2 years.