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Man sentenced to 10 years for attack on wife in Campbell
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Elijah Lashley said Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that it was his addiction to crack cocaine that fueled a night during which his wife says she was beaten, choked and abused in her Campbell home last June.
Lashley, 33, was sentenced to 13 years in prison by Judge Maureen Sweeney for guilty pleas he entered in February to two counts of kidnapping and two counts of felonious assault.
Lashley, who spoke under his breath almost the entire court proceeding, choked up when he told Judge Sweeney what his addiction has cost him.
“I’m torn up,” Lashley said. “I lost my entire family. My kids. My kids were my life.”
Lashley also said the abuse his wife told the judge about, when she made her victim- impact statement, “wasn’t as severe as she said it was.”
His wife spoke for at least 20 minutes, detailing in sometimes graphic detail the attack she endured June 2 in her Coitsville Road home. She said her husband tied her up with cords, duct tape and anything else he could find and assaulted her for three hours before leaving.
She managed to free herself and go to a neighbor’s home to call the police because her husband broke her phone.
The victim said Lashley had relapsed into a crack- cocaine addiction that cost her everything. She said Lashley would steal household items and close out bank accounts, leaving her unable to pay bills because the money was gone. She said she couldn’t understand why Lashley started back on drugs because he had a job, home and family.
“How could he let drugs take over?” the victim asked.
Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin had asked for a sentence of 10 years, saying that the attack happened after the victim told Lashley she had enough of his drug addiction and wanted to break up. McLaughlin said the victim was covered in duct tape and cords and Lashley used his hands and other ligatures to choke the victim, all while their children were sleeping in other rooms of their home.
“Anything in the bedroom he was able to get, he was able to use, he did that,” McLaughlin said.
Lashley also had made a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, saying that his lawyer had withheld evidence that would have exonerated him, but Judge Sweeney denied his motion.