Tuesday, October 18, 2016
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
With tears just before he was sentenced Monday to three years in prison, Kendale Clark told Judge Lou A. D’Apolito: “I just keep thinking about my children.”
He was tearfully embracing family members moments before sentencing by Judge D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The judge said if Clark was that concerned about his children, he would not have had enough cocaine on him to be charged with a first-degree felony, to which he ultimately pleaded guilty.
“You should have been thinking about your children when you were playing with drugs,” Judge D’Apolito said.
Clark, 32, was sentenced on a first-degree felony charge of possession of cocaine and a misdemeanor count of aggravated menacing.
The sentence he received is the mandatory minimum sentence someone can receive for a first-degree felony drug charge.
A first-degree felony is the highest degree of felony in Ohio.
Clark was arrested Oct. 18, 2015, at a home in the 3000 block of Kiwatha Avenue after police were called for a report of a fight. When officers arrived they found all the windows broken out and glass everywhere but Clark was not there.
A few hours later police were called back and Clark was there.
He was taken into custody on a domestic-violence charge, and when police searched him they found two bags of suspected cocaine in his pockets.
The drug later was weighed at 56 grams.
Clark’s attorney, Tony Meranto, asked the judge to stay the sentence until Clark could complete a drug- rehabilitation program, but the judge declined.
Judge D’Apolito said that people who carry large amounts of drugs like Clark had on him when he was arrested are often selling them. “That’s one thing that tells me you weren’t thinking about your kids,” Judge D’Apolito said. “That shows me you were trying to make a buck.”
Clark said he was selling drugs only to support his own habit. He asked for a chance at rehabilitation, saying that he has never received a chance at rehab before.
Judge D’Apolito urged Clark to take advantage of his time in prison to get counseling to get off drugs so he could support his children.