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Judge: Prosecutors cannot revoke plea in gang case
By Joe gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors Friday tried to have a guilty plea revoked by a South Side man for his role in being a member of a gang, after evidence surfaced that he is a suspect in at least two homicides.
Instead, Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney let the plea stand against 21-year-old Frankie Hudson but has postponed sentencing as further investigation takes place.
Hudson had entered guilty pleas May 16 to a count of robbery, three counts of aggravated robbery, and participation in a criminal gang with gang specifications and firearms specifications attached. He is one of four members of the H Block gang on the South Side who were indicted in the crimes they are accused of committing as members of the gang last year. Prosecutors were recommending a sentence of seven years.
Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond said his office wanted to take back the plea offer because Hudson did not live up to the terms of the agreement. He was supposed to be truthful in a statement about the gang and a homicide he had knowledge of. Instead, while investigating his claim in that homicide, police found out he may have been involved in two other killings, and he is being investigated for those crimes.
Desmond would not say what homicides Hudson is being looked at for, or when they may have taken place.
Desmond also said Hudson wrote a letter to another gang member saying he would change his story so the gang member would not be in trouble.
David Betras, attorney for Hudson, said his client denies writing the letter and he was truthful when he offered his statements.
“They don’t have evidence he wasn’t truthful,” Betras said.
He said in the case of the homicides, prosecutors are taking the word of witnesses over Hudson’s testimony.
“The prosecution believes the other wit- nesses more than my client,” Betras said.
Betras said the statements he provided in the H Block case were truthful, and Desmond agreed that they were. He said if Desmond wanted to proceed he would advise his client to withdraw his guilty plea, which Judge Sweeney said he legally was allowed to do before his sentence is handed down.
Judge Sweeney said she will hold off on sentencing but allow the plea to stand while an investigation continues and a handwriting analyst examines the letter Hudson supposedly wrote. She said she will not look at the letter until the analyst does.
Desmond said he hopes to find an analyst within the next week.