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Man gets six years for June shooting
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The attorney for a man sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to six years in prison for his role in a June shooting disagreed that the sentence was not long enough.
Mark Lavelle told Judge R. Scott Krichbaum on Wednesday that six years in prison for his client, Kalib Butler, 19, of Youngstown was like a lifetime because of Butler’s age.
“It’s a lot of time for a 19-year-old,” Lavelle said. “It’s like a 20-year sentence for me and you.”
Butler, of North Evanston Avenue, was one of three people indicted in the shooting at a Clay Street home on the East Side early June 18. He pleaded guilty to seven counts of felonious assault, a firearm specification and one count of discharging a firearm at or into a habitation.
Police said an argument in a Plazaview Court parking sparked the shooting, which took place about a week later. Police said a woman recruited Butler and two other men to extract revenge for her. There were seven people in the home, but only one person was slightly injured and did not require medical treatment. Judge Krichbaum asked Assistant Prosecutor Natasha Natale her rationale for the recommended sentence with so many charges. She said it was because Butler has almost no criminal record and has promised his cooperation with police if needed.
Other defendants in the case, Ayers Bunch, 18, and Jonathan Simmons, 19, both of Plazaview Court, also pleaded guilty. Prosecutors are recommending a six-year sentence for Simmons and a 10-year sentence for Bunch, who Natale said arranged the shooting and fired the shots in the house.
Butler stressed to the judge he did not have a gun. His role was to try to force open the door. “I did not shoot a firearm into that habitation,” he said.
Judge Krichbaum said it does not matter if Butler had a gun or not because, under the law, he is just as guilty as the person who fired a gun because he was there and taking part. Butler said he understood that and that is the reason he pleaded guilty.
“I’m stepping up as a man,” Butler said. “I’m going to accept the consequences of being there.”
Lavelle said his client has learned a valuable lesson. He said the entire thing started because someone thought they had been disrespected and had to take revenge to preserve their “street cred.”