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Two of three pleaded guilty in Campbell case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Two of three men who ran from Campbell police in February, after they were spotted in a car with a gun pointing out the car window, pleaded guilty Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to aggravated burglary charges.
Daniel Clark, 21, of Penhale Avenue in Campbell and Marquis Hudson, 25, of Ridley Avenue each entered their pleas before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito.
They will be sentenced after a presentence investigation.
Although prosecutors are recommending probation because both men have minimal criminal records and the victim in the case does not want to press charges, Judge D’Apolito said that is not a certainty, noting that the charge is a first-degree felony that often carries with it a prison sentence.
Both men also were charged with aggravated robbery and a separate charge of aggravated burglary but those charges were dropped in exchange for their pleas.
The two men and a third man, 28-year-old Alex Green of 10th Street in Campbell, were arrested early Feb. 18 after a resident called police about 1:45 a.m. to report someone was in a car on Tenney Avenue pointing a gun out the window.
Police responded and when they tried to pull the car over, it turned into a driveway and all three men ran away. Police tracked Hudson and Clark by their footprints and Green was arrested at a nearby home.
By the car, police found a handgun and inside the car, they found a rifle and a 30-round magazine.
The three are accused of pushing their way into a nearby home before they were spotted by police, which is where the aggravated burglary charge comes in.
Green is serving a 40-month federal sentence on unrelated charges and will have his case heard at a later date, said Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Burns.
Judge D’Apolito said Clark and Hudson are lucky they are not dead. He said he is puzzled why they decided to take part in something illegal.
Both men, who are free on bond, had family members in court who came to support them. Judge D’Apolito said they must make better decisions in the future. He said he wasn’t sure if the men made a mistake or if they are just common “thugs.”
“You’re playing with people who were doing bad things and you jump right in like you’re doing bad things, too,” Judge D’Apolito said. “You’ve got family members back here and you act like ordinary thugs.”
Judge D’Apolito said he will have both men drug tested before they are sentenced and he said he was not promising he would agree with the recommendation for probation.