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Young robbers get prison time
YOUNGSTOWN
Two 19-year-olds without prior juvenile or adult criminal records have learned the hard way that gun crime yields substantial prison time, even though nobody was injured in the robbery they committed.
Alex G. Seymore of Woodbine Avenue, Struthers, got eight years in prison; and his accomplice, Kalen M. Handy, of Lakewood Avenue got six years in prison Tuesday.
Both men earlier had pleaded guilty to three counts each of aggravated robbery with firearm specifications in a July 14, 2015, robbery of three Poland teens in Yellow Creek Park in Struthers.
The sentences were imposed by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, to whom both defendants apologized for the crime.
Both defendants’ sentences include a mandatory three-year gun specification consecutive to their prison time for the robbery itself; and both will be on probation for five years after prison.
“It was supposed to be a joke,” said Seymore’s lawyer, Donna McCollum, based on what her client told police. “Anytime a firearm is involved, it is not a joke,” she added.
“Mr. Handy did not have a weapon. ... He was brought into it and followed instructions, but he is culpable” as a complicitor, Atty. Thomas Zena said on behalf of his client.
Judge Sweeney strongly recommended Seymore and Handy take college courses in prison and warned them they wouldn’t get early release from prison if they violate prison rules, even once.
A third defendant, Darnell Penwell, 19, of Kendis Circle, was indicted on the same charges in the incident, but he cooperated with police and the prosecution, and, in return, the prosecution agreed to dismiss the case against him, said Robert J. Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor.
All of the victims are high- school students, and none of them appeared in court to make a victim-impact statement at the sentencing hearing.