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Man begs judge; ‘Don’t make me an example’
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
For Samuel Richard, the pleading began Thursday even before his sentencing hearing started in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
He was due to receive four years in prison in April after pleading guilty to charges of felonious assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm. But the day of his sentencing, prosecutors say Richard, who was on house arrest, cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet and dropped off the radar until Monday.
That’s when city police arrested him in an SUV with two other people after responding to a call of a fight with weapons on Ellenwood Avenue. There were three guns in the SUV Richard was found in, and he is facing weapons charges in that incident. Richard was one of 37 people indicted last summer for their roles in a heroin ring operating on the East Side.
But Thursday, Richard, 27, who says he has he has been shot 16 times, pleaded with Margaret Tomaro of the state attorney general’s office, who prosecuted the case, and Judge Shirley J. Christian not to increase his sentence just because he skipped sentencing.
“Please don’t make an example out of me,” Samuel pleaded to the judge. “Please. I don’t want to be the example.”
Before court even began, Richard was flustering Tomaro, begging that she live up to the original plea agreement. In reasons he repeated to the judge, Richard said he has been shot 16 times, one of those times in the buttocks and another one that blew his fingers off. He said he did not show up for his sentencing because he was afraid for his life and that he realizes he made a mistake.
“I just don’t want to die, your honor,” Richard told the judge. “I just didn’t want to go back and get hurt. In jail, people run up on me. It’s like I’m not going to be safe. It’s never going to end, no matter where I go.”
Richard said he was shot while on house arrest while in the home to which he was confined, but claimed he did nothing to justify anyone shooting at him.
“I didn’t do nothing. I didn’t do nothing, your honor,” Richard said.
Tomaro asked that Judge Christian impose the maximum penalties for Richard, which would amount to a 13-year prison sentence. She said the extra time is deserved because Richard skipped his sentencing, and a message has to be sent that people cannot abuse the privilege of having bail while awaiting sentencing. She also said Richard has a very violent criminal record and the charge he pleaded guilty to was for shooting a woman in March 2015 as part of his role as an enforcer for the drug ring.
None of that deterred Richard from pleading to not receive extra prison time.
“I’m sorry, I promise, I’m sorry to you all,” Richard said. “Please. I don’t deserve all this time.”
Judge Christian said Richard never let the court know he feared for his life, and he never called police when he said he was shot while on house arrest. She doubled the time of the original plea agreement to eight years, saying she has a duty to protect the public from him.
“I’m not worried about helping you,” Judge Christian said, jerking her thumb toward a window. “I’m worried about the people out there. You want me to honor the [plea] deal, but you didn’t honor the deal.”