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Three members of gang enter guilty pleas
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Three people pleaded guilty Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to charges they belonged to an East Side street gang.
Curtis Jones, 21; DeVonte Gilmore, 21; and Graylan Folmar, 24, all entered pleas of guilty to a charge of participating in a criminal street gang before Judge Maureen Sweeney.
Jones and Gilmore were sentenced immediately after they entered their pleas to eight years each in prison, to run concurrent with 12-year sentences they are serving for manslaughter charges in the March 2011 shooting death of 16-year-old De’Vail Fleeton on the East Side.
Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond said the sentences actually will guarantee that the pair serve the full 12 years of their manslaughter sentences. He said that the pair were both sentenced to nine years on the manslaughter and three years on firearm specifications but because of the firearm specifications they receive no jail-time credit towards their new sentences.
Both could be eligible for parole or judicial release on the manslaughter charges after they serve a total of five years, but they are not eligible for judicial release on the gang charges, which ensures they will serve the entire sentence on the manslaughter charges, Desmond said. “I think it’s [sentences] fair in that it ensures they will do all the time in the penitentiary and won’t get out early,” Desmond told Judge Sweeney.
Folmar will be sentenced after a presentence investigation. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of four years for him.
On Wednesday, Charles Moore, 22, pleaded guilty to the same charge, and he was given a four-year prison sentence.
In August, 13 members of the gang were indicted by a grand jury. Police and prosecutors say they were responsible for dealing drugs in the area of the Victory Arms housing project on the East Side and were known for using violence to protect their territory.
The leader of the gang, 23-year-old Adam Christian, was murdered on Woodcrest Avenue in 2011. Three men are awaiting trial in his death.
With the pleas Wednesday and Thursday, just two more defendants, Darrel Mason, 24, and Phillip Anderson, 23, remain whose cases have not been completed. Desmond said both are expected to plead guilty shortly.