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Prosecutors oppose release of robber
By joe gorman
youngstown
Prosecutors Tuesday opposed a motion for judicial release for a man serving eight years for a series of robberies he committed in 2006, just a month after he was released from prison for other robberies.
Nicholas Brevetta, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, wrote in an opposition to the request for Eric Lawson, 33, that he already received a break because his charges were reduced as part of his guilty plea from aggravated robbery to robbery.
In his first robbery case, Lawson also was granted early release only to be arrested again on a parole violation and ordered to serve the remainder of his original sentence.
Brevetta also wrote that the original plea agreement did not mention if prosecutors would take a stance on judicial release. In some guilty pleas, the prosecution agrees to remain silent when a person pleading guilty who will be sentenced to prison will ask to be released from their sentence early.
Lawson, acting as his own lawyer, filed his request before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on July 9. Department of Corrections records show he is to be released from prison in January.
Lawson pleaded guilty July 17, 2007, to four counts of robbery and received sentences of two years for three counts and four years for one count, all to be served consecutively for a total of 10 years. His sentence was modified about 10 days later to eight years. Brevetta also wrote in his response that Lawson already got a break when two years was knocked off his original sentence.
He was accused of committing four robberies in November 2006 after being released from prison in October 2006 for two robbery convictions. He was arrested after being accused of robbing the Family Dollar store on South Avenue in Boardman twice and a Walgreens on East Midlothian Boulevard, also in Boardman. The final robbery was at a Subway restaurant on the Youngstown side of East Midlothian Boulevard, where police said he threatened to shoot an employee and got away with $42.
In August 2003, Lawson was sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to three years in prison on two robbery convictions. He was given credit for 168 days already served in jail awaiting disposition of the case.
In June 2004, he was granted early release by Judge James C. Evans and placed on five years’ community control. The judge also ordered that Lawson complete an in-house program at Community Corrections Association, a halfway facility on Market Street.
In June 2005, a bench warrant was issued when the Ohio Adult Parole Authority declared Lawson’s whereabouts unknown. He was found and arrested, and the judge reimposed the original sentence minus time served.