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Man gets 10 years for shooting
By Joe Gorman
youngstown
There were tears all around as Emmett Perkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for the death of a close friend who he said was like an uncle or a brother to him.
A lot of those tears were shed by Perkins himself, especially when his defense attorney played a 911 tape for Judge Lou D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. It was a tape of the night Frank Whitted was shot and killed as Perkins frantically told a dispatcher about the shooting. Not just Perkins was sobbing, but so were several members of Whitted’s family who were in the courtroom, some of them having to leave because they could not control their crying.
“I never meant for this to happen,” Perkins told Judge D’Apolito. “You need to understand that. I need their [the family’s] forgiveness. They need to understand I didn’t want this.”
Perkins is accused of shooting Whitted inside a West Princeton Avenue home on the South Side on Feb. 12. Robert Duffrin, Perkins’ attorney, said that Perkins was living with Whitted and was leaving the house and trying to take an old handgun with him.
Whitted tried to get Perkins to leave the gun in the home because Perkins was on probation, and the gun went off and killed Whitted.
Perkins originally was charged with murder but entered a guilty plea to a charge of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm specification, although he tried to take that plea back before the hearing, but decided to go ahead after a talk with Duffrin.
Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Davis asked for a maximum sentence of 14 years, 11 for the involuntary manslaughter charge and the mandatory three years for the firearm specification. He said that Perkins killed a man who had an unborn child at the time who will never see him. Perkins has a criminal record and violated his probation in an earlier case when Whitted was killed.
Duffrin said his client is haunted by the shooting. Whitted helped him do his taxes and took him in when no one else would and was like a brother or an uncle. He said a sentence of six years is appropriate.
“He wants to be punished in this case. He feels horrible,” Duffrin said.
Angela James, a sister of Whitted’s, said her brother had his ups and downs but was a good person with a good heart. She said she bears no ill will toward Perkins but she thinks he deserves to be punished.
“I just want you to know he didn’t deserve to die.” James said. “I don’t hate the defendant. But he deserves every day, every second, every minute he gets.”
Judge D’Apolito said he agreed Perkins did not mean to kill Whitted, but he said Perkins made a mistake by trying to take a gun he was not supposed to have, and Whitted was trying to save him from getting into trouble.
“His uncle was trying to help him, and instead of walking away, a man loses his life,” Judge D’Apolito said. “This gun also destroyed the living. Both lives.”