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Man sentenced to six years for shooting in house
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A Warren man who admitted firing several shots into a North Jackson home last summer was sentenced to six years in prison.
Derek Hopson, 21, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on a charge of improper discharge of a firearm at or into a habitation and a firearm specification. The judge gave him three years on the improper discharge and an additional three on the firearm specification.
Hopson is one of four people charged in the Aug. 26, 2015, shooting of a home on Bailey Road. Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said Hopson and a juvenile went to the back of the home, fired several shots then ran through the backyard.
Cantalamessa said the juvenile was upset at a woman in the house who used to be his girlfriend because he accused her of scratching his car. Several rounds penetrated the home, and one was just inches away from the victim, who was sleeping in her bed, but otherwise unharmed.
The two adults in the case besides Hopson have entered guilty pleas but have yet to be sentenced. Records for the juvenile are not available.
Hopson told Judge Christian he was sorry, but the judge said she wanted to make sure Hopson knows what he did was wrong and why it was wrong.
“You can’t solve your problems with guns, and you can’t be around people who want to solve their problems with guns,” Judge Christian said.
Hopson said he understood and wants to come out of prison a better person.
The sentence was agreed on between defense attorneys and prosecutors.
After he serves the three- year sentence on the firearm specification, Cantalamessa said the state has no objection to Hopson applying for judicial release as soon as he is eligible as long as he behaves in prison.