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Man gets 10 years in June shooting
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Slumped and shrunken in his wheelchair, Eric VanCobb told a judge that his life has changed forever since he took three bullets during a drug deal gone bad on West Indianola Avenue in June that put him in the wheelchair.
“My life is just different,” VanCobb told Judge Shirley Christian while shaking his head Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, before she sentenced the man convicted of shooting him, Robert Sutherland, 42, of Helena Avenue, to 10 years in prison.
A jury convicted Sutherland in October of felonious assault.
Police said Sutherland, who had no prior criminal record, shot VanCobb about 10 p.m. June 2 in the 900 block of West Indianola Avenue after VanCobb tried to rob him of marijuana during a drug deal. Assistant Prosecutor Nick Brevetta said VanCobb was chased down by Sutherland as he was running away, and Sutherland shot him.
During the trial, Sutherland and his defense attorney, Dennis DiMartino, 2015 Creators Syndicate 2015 Creators Syndicate said Sutherland was acting in self-defense because VanCobb had his arm underneath a shirt like he had a gun – and would not take the hand from under the shirt even after Sutherland pointed a gun at him.
Sutherland said when he addressed Judge Christian that he was sorry for VanCobb’s injuries but he also insisted that he was acting in self-defense.
“I took the actions I felt I had to take under the circumstances,” Sutherland said.
VanCobb’s mother, Dedeira Wallace, told Judge Christian that her son now requires constant, daily care.
“It’s a daily struggle,” Wallace said. She said she is holding out hope that her son will walk again despite opinions from doctors that he will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
DiMartino asked for a lenient sentence, saying that his client had no record, works and takes care of his two children. He even took a blighted piece of property for his neighbors and started a community garden for them, DiMartino said.
Weeping, Sutherland said he knew he would go to prison, but he asked for a sentence that would not keep him away from his family for long.
Judge Christian said she took into account the seriousness of the injury inflicted on VanCobb and the fact that the shooting happened because of the interaction between guns and drugs.
“This is one of the most-serious results of that interaction,” Judge Christian said.
The maximum sentence Sutherland faced was eight years on the felonious assault plus a mandatory three years for a firearm specification. Judge Christian sentenced him to seven years on the felonious assault, plus the gun specification.