43
Man gets nine years for pair of August robberies
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
An assistant prosecutor in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court credited quick work by police and quick thinking by a clerk to catch a man who was sentenced to nine years in prison for a pair of robberies.
Lesean Edge, 29, of Niles, was sentenced Thursday by Judge Maureen Sweeney on two counts of aggravated robbery and the firearm specifications for each of those crimes. Under a plea deal worked out by Assistant Prosecutor Michael Yacovone and defense lawyer Terry Grenga, Edge was given consecutive sentences of three years on both firearm specifications, which by law have to be served first, and three years for the robbery charges.
He also gets credit toward the first firearms specification of 276 days he has served in the county jail since his arrest.
Edge was charged with robbing an Econolodge hotel in Austintown on Aug. 26, then three days later a Cashland check-cashing business on East Midlothian Boulevard on the city’s South Side.
A clerk at the Cashland put a GPS device in with the cash she gave him, and police were able to catch him right away and he was taken to the jail.
After he was taken to the jail, Austintown police contacted Youngstown police to see if they had any reports of robberies committed by a person wearing camouflage shorts and a black hat, which was the clothing worn by the person who robbed the Econolodge. City police said Edge was wearing the same clothes when he robbed the Cashland.
Edge said he is sorry for the trouble he caused his victims.
“I put them in a bad situation,” Edge said. “They had nothing to do with my decision. It was a poor decision.”
Edge referred to “mitigating factors” that led him to commit the robberies but he would not say what they were. He did say he looks at the prison time he must serve as a chance to improve himself.
“I look at it as a time to better myself and rediscover myself,” Edge said.