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Man sent to prison on probation violation
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Macovitz
By Joe Gorman
Youngstown
Larry Macovitz admitted Tuesday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum that he violated his probation seven times the day he was given the terms — and asked for leniency.
Judge Krichbaum said he already granted Macovitz leniency once, and was not inclined to do so again, as he increased a previous six-month jail sentence to nine months and also ordered the time served in state prison instead of the Mahoning County jail.
Macovitz was sentenced Oct. 25 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for domestic-violence charges and was ordered to have no contact with his estranged wife, but instead he called her seven times from the jail the day he was sentenced after Judge Krichbaum ordered him to have no contact “whatsoever” with her.
Judge Krichbaum said he found the actions hard to comprehend.
Macovitz also admitted writing three letters to his wife.
“I’m sorry,” he told one of the attorneys as he interrupted them to ask a question. “I have to process that.”
Macovitz was sentenced Oct. 25 to six months in the Mahoning County jail and five years’ probation, which was the sentence recommended by prosecutors at the time.
Judge Krichbaum, with some misgivings, agreed.
Macovitz had pleaded guilty to two felony counts of domestic violence, which is a third-degree felony.
Macovitz has been arrested four times this year within a four-month span for domestic violence and five times overall in 2013.
As part of that plea deal by prosecutors, additional pending charges of domestic violence against Macovitz in Mahoning County Court in Boardman were dismissed in exchange for his forfeiting more than 100 weapons, most of them firearms, which will be destroyed.
As a felon, Macovitz is no longer allowed to legally own a firearm.
One of Macovitz’s attorneys, Lou DeFabio, told Judge Krichbaum that the calls and letters written to his wife were not threatening and that Macovitz was trying to make arrangements to make sure his family, especially his children, are cared for. DeFabio said that Macovitz did not expect to be sent to jail when he was sentenced in October.
“It’s a man desperately trying to save his family,” DeFabio said.
DeFabio also said Macovitz had no contact with his wife after he was given a written set of his probation instructions from the Adult Parole Authority on Nov. 7.
His wife, Haley, told the judge she wants Macovitz to have contact with his children. She asked that he be released because she is having surgery soon and has no one to watch her kids.
After she spoke, Macovitz spoke again and through tears asked for leniency.
But Judge Krichbaum said he granted leniency once Oct. 25 when he should have sentenced Macovitz to prison — even though a sentencing agreement recommended no prison time. He also said Macovitz has violated other no contact orders in the past and that he needed to punish him because once a judge issues an order it has to be enforced. He did say he decided on a minimum sentence of nine months prison after hearing his wife speak. He could’ve gotten three years in prison.
“I did everything I could to not put you in the penitentiary,” Judge Krichbaum said.
“You’re the guy who put yourself in the penitentiary.”