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Man gets probation for having guns on New Year’s Eve
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jeffrey Southerland said Thursday he is changing the way he celebrates New Year’s Eve.
Just before he was to be sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying concealed weapons after he was caught with three guns outside a South Side home late Dec. 31, Southerland said he no longer will ring in the New Year by firing off a couple of rounds into the air.
“I was trying to follow tradition and celebrate the new year,” Southerland said. “Next year, I’m going to get pots and pans.”
Police arrested Southerland, 36, of West LaClede Avenue, about 11:45 p.m. Dec. 31 when investigating several gunfire calls in the area of West Indianola and Chicago avenues on the South Side.
They saw Southerland in the yard of a Chicago Avenue home with a rifle in his hand. According to police reports, when Southerland saw the officers, he dropped the rifle under a car in the driveway. Police later recovered the rifle, a semiautomatic rifle, and also found two handguns in his possession.
Southerland was sentenced to three years’ probation.
Prosecutors were recommending some incarceration.
Atty. Tom Zena, Southerland’s lawyer, said his client has been trouble-free since his arrest and has worked the same job for a long time. Southerland cannot have a gun because of a conviction for possession of drugs in 2007.
Court records show he has not been in trouble since then.
Zena said none of the guns Southerland was caught with were stolen or used in another crime.
Southerland also was not under the influence of any alcohol or drugs at the time, and he even told police where another gun was, Zena said.
Judge D’Apolito said what Southerland did “was a very foolish and stupid thing in my mind.”
“What do you think happens to those bullets when you shoot them up into the air?” the judge said.
Judge D’Apolito said the thing that swayed him toward granting Southerland probation was a pre-sentence report by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, which ranked Southerland as a very low risk to reoffend.