LaBooth can't run from shooting sentence this time

March 18, 2015 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

There was no way Richard LaBooth could run Tuesday.

The East Avondale Avenue man, 36, who walked out of his sentencing hearing in June in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on a charge of felonious assault and was on the lam until December, was shackled, cuffed and watched carefully as he was given a sentence of seven years by Judge Lou D’Apolito.

It was his second court appearance since being captured in December by U.S. marshals in Columbus, roughly six months after he left the courthouse during a break in his sentencing hearing. By leaving and being gone for so long, Judge D’Apolito said he forfeited any mercy on the part of the court.

“He demonstrated to me by his conduct he deserves no consideration by this court,” Judge D’Apolito said.

Labooth was to be sentenced June 9 and was out on house arrest for treatment of gunshot wounds to his leg he suffered in a Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at a Lora Avenue home where another man was wounded. Labooth was charged with felonious assault and a firearm specification in that case and entered an Alford Plea, which means he maintains his innocence but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to find him guilty.

At the time of his sentencing prosecutors were recommending a sentence of five years but because Labooth left in the middle of his hearing, that agreement is no longer valid.

During that June sentencing hearing, Judge D’Apolito was in a trial so another judge was brought in to handle the sentencing, since it was an agreed-upon sentence. However, Labooth said he wanted to be sentenced by Judge D’Apolito only. Judge D’Apolito took a break from his trial, but during that break, Labooth walked out of the courthouse. The judge’s bailiff reported he saw Labooth get into a waiting car that drove away.

In January, LaBooth wanted to withdraw his plea in his first court appearance since he was returned from Columbus, but Judge D’Apolito denied his request.

The person LaBooth is accused of shooting was in court Tuesday but did not want to speak.

James Lanzo, LaBooth’s lawyer, asked the judge to stick with the sentence recommendation in the original plea agreement.