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Toney gets 29 years to life
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Aubrey Toney stares as he is sentenced Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the September 2010 murder of Thomas Repchic.
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Aubrey Toney had nothing to say just before he was sentenced Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to 29 years to life in prison for killing 74-year-old Thomas Repchic and wounding his wife, Jacqueline, in 2010.
But the Repchics’ grandson, Thomas McBride, had plenty to say to Toney, who was convicted of murder, felonious assault and firearm specifications in a case that police said was one of mistaken identity.
Speaking before Judge Maureen Sweeney, McBride first told the court about the kind of person his grandfather was. He said his grandfather was all about family and loved working in his yard with no shirt on, even though he was in his 70s, and he loved to repair things.
“If you drove past his house he would wave to you,” McBride said.
McBride said his grandfather loved shaking hands with people and then teasing them about shaking for too long.
“He’d say, ‘Hey, let go already,’” McBride said.
Police say Toney, 33, was feuding with another man and found out that the man was driving a car similar to the Repchics’ on Sept. 25, 2010. He then borrowed an SUV from a cousin, and when he saw the car, he fired several shots at it from an assault rifle at East Philadelphia and Southern Boulevard in Youngstown, killing Thomas Repchic and wounding his wife, who was 74 at the time. Her foot had to be amputated because of the shooting.
Another man, Kevin Agee, was tried in 2012 and convicted for his role as the driver in the crime. He is serving a sentence of 31 years to life in prison. A jury convicted Toney earlier this month, but found him innocent of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications and attempted murder.
McBride addressed Toney, who was seated between lawyers John Juhasz and Paul Cohn in jail garb, telling Toney about how he drove from Columbus some days to be with his family during the trial and that he was thankful for the witnesses who testified, even though some of them did not want to be in court.
“Some of them were afraid, but all of them were brave and courageous — and for that I am truly grateful,” McBride said.
McBride said he wondered how someone could be so angry that he would wake up one morning and decide to kill someone with whom he was arguing.
“What happened to just being a man? To turning the other cheek and walking away?” McBride said.
McBride said Toney was brave in one respect because, during the opening statement he gave to jurors during the trial, Toney said he was never at the scene of the shooting that day — which McBride said was untrue.
“It would be real hard to stand up and keep a straight face and blatantly lie to people,” McBride said.
McBride said Toney changed the lives of countless people, including his own family, when he decided to use violence to settle his argument.
“You changed everyone’s path in life, including yours,” McBride said. “We have gone away from being polite and having manners to being selfish.”
Toney was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the murder charge, eight years for the felonious-assault charge and three years each on both of the firearm specifications.
Assistant Prosecutor Rebecca Doherty said Agee’s sentence is two years more because in his trial, jurors found him guilty of attempted murder instead of felonious assault, which carries a higher sentence.