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Gun-toting felon gets three years in prison
YOUNGSTOWN
A 24-year-old East Lucius Avenue man has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to being a felon with a gun.
Jeffrey Brown drew the sentence Friday from Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The prosecution, which dropped charges of resisting arrest and improperly handling a gun in a motor vehicle in the plea deal, recommended one year in prison.
Brown’s lawyer, Paul Conn, who urged the judge to adopt the one-year recommendation, said after court that he’ll file a notice of appeal at Brown’s request.
Brown did not address the judge before she sentenced him.
“It’s not just any crime. It’s a dangerous crime,” Judge Christian said of the gun charge. “I believe that the maximum penalty is necessary,” because of Brown’s history of gun-related offenses, she added.
City police arrested Brown in April after they found a loaded .44-caliber revolver under the seat of the car he was driving when they stopped him at East Lucius and Homestead avenues.
When police tried to handcuff Brown, they said he ran away and was tackled before being taken into custody.
While he was free on bond in this case, Brown was arrested again by the same officer, Kenneth Garling, on Aug. 29, under similar circumstances, on charges of being a felon with a gun, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest.
When officers tried to stop an SUV in which Brown was a passenger at the same location, it led police on a chase, slowing down on Palmer Avenue, where Brown and the driver bailed out and fled on foot.
Garling tackled Brown after Brown slipped and fell in a Roxbury Avenue yard, finding a .40-caliber handgun on Brown, with a round in the chamber.
Police said they retraced the foot-chase route, finding a .45-caliber handgun.
In 2012, then-Judge James C. Evans of common pleas court sentenced Brown to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to being a felon with a gun.
In that case, Brown got early judicial release, but he was returned to prison after violating terms of his release.
Besides his adult crimes, Judge Christian noted Brown had seven cases with multiple charges, including armed robbery, aggravated menacing, assault, and carrying a concealed weapon, in juvenile court.
Nicholas Brevetta, an assistant county prosecutor, said he agreed to recommend the one-year prison term before the filing of the August charges, whose validity the judge said she couldn’t consider in imposing the sentence in the April case.
“I tend to keep my deals,” Brevetta said after court.
However, he added: “It’s good to see that judges recognize the danger of repeat [gun crime] offenders.”