Man gets four years for September '14 bar shooting

May 23, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge Lou D’Apolito told Dominique Green on Friday that he talks a good game – then sentenced him to four years in prison for shooting a man at a city bar last September.

Green, 21, of Hermitage, Pa., said he agreed.

The judge said there was just one problem: Why did he have a gun in a bar that night?

“You talk a good game, but you had a gun,” Judge D’Apolito said. “Your conduct was terrible.”

Green pleaded guilty to a charge of felonious assault and a firearm specification for shooting a man in the hand outside a city bar last September.

Ryan Ingram, Green’s attorney, told the judge his client was with a group of friends from Mercer County at the bar when they exchanged words with someone inside, then the argument spilled outside. Ingram said someone shouted that the person had a gun or knife and that’s when Green shot the man.

The victim did not show up to court.

Green apologized for his actions.

“It’s below me,” Green said. “I’m not a harmful person. I’m very kind-hearted.”

Ingram told the judge Green had grown up in a dysfunctional home and at one point was in foster care. While in foster care, he was abused by his foster parents but he did get his General Educational Development diploma, and he has never been in trouble before.

“He made a very irrational decision,” Ingram said.

Green also is the father of two young sons, and he said he knows what it’s like to grow up without a father. He told the judge he wants to serve his time and get back to his children as soon as possible.

Green also was given credit for 252 days he has served in the county jail.