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Man gets max sentence for beating wife over refusal to get beer
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in municipal court Thursday, a photo rendered Judge Elizabeth Kobly speechless.
Judge Kobly was sentencing John Ahern, 47, of Warren, who had entered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor count of domestic violence for beating his wife after he she refused to get him more beer.
The judge was looking at a picture of his wife taken by police shortly after the beating.
The photo given to her by assistant city Prosecutor Jeffrey Moliterno showed the entire side of the victim’s face purple and bruised and her eye swollen shut.
She was also present in court Thursday with heavy bruising still apparent on her neck and eyes.
The judge gasped when she looked at the picture.
“Counsel, I think for the first time in my life, I am at a loss for words,” Judge Kobly said.
Ahern was also at a loss for words. He declined to speak before he was sentenced to six months in the county jail, the maximum sentence for a first-degree misdemeanor.
Police were called to the Woodcrest Avenue home of Ahern’s wife about 7:20 p.m. Aug. 15, where she told them she was beaten by Ahern because he had been drinking, and when he ran out of beer, he wanted her to get him more and she refused. He was arrested by police a short time later at a construction site and has been in the Mahoning County jail since his arrest.
Moliterno told the judge the victim had suffered a stroke before the beating, and after Ahern knocked her down, she could not get back up because of the stroke.
Ahern’s wife also declined to speak to the court.
“How could you do this to her? How could you do this?” Judge Kobly asked Ahern. “Shame on you.” Matthew Gambrel, Ahern’s lawyer, said his client had no excuse for his actions, which was why he was pleading guilty and he was ready to accept his punishment.
All Ahern would say was that he is moving to Nebraska when his jail sentence is up, and he plans on never seeing his wife again.
Court records show Ahern was sentenced to a year in prison in 2008 after pleading guilty in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to a third degree felony charge of domestic violence. In 2011, records from Central District Court in Trumbull County show domestic violence or assault charges filed against Ahern five times within a span of eight months from August 2011 to April 2012, but dispositions could not be found for those cases.
He also has an outstanding warrant from Warren Municipal Court for a criminal trespass charge in 2012, according to court records.