Man gets nine years for shooting

YOUNGSTOWN

Joseph Williams denied everything Wednesday except wounding the man Judge Maureen Sweeney was sentencing him for shooting earlier this year.

Williams, 61, said he did not take the money that started the shooting.

He said that he was taken from his home while on his sickbed by a group of people looking for that money, and that when he did shoot Roderick Wilson March 11 he was just trying to protect himself. He was trying to punch Wilson with a gun he had when the gun went off.

“I wanted him [Wilson] to feel the same fear I was feeling. I was scared to death,” said Williams in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. “They did me really bad.”

Judge Sweeney sentenced Williams to nine years in prison for the shooting, six for a charge of felonious assault he pleaded guilty to Aug. 31 and an additional three years because a firearm was used in the crime.

Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews was seeking a sentence of 10 years. He said Wilson is in Columbus being treated for the wound he received in the shooting. One of the bullets is lodged in Williams’ spine and he had no use of his left leg, although that is not a direct result of the bullet, Andrews said.