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Man sentenced to eight years for beating woman
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who beat a woman so hard in March that she suffered a “facial explosion” was sentenced Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to eight years in prison.
Michael Atyim, 42, of Boardman, was sentenced by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito on two counts of felonious assault with repeat violent offender specifications for the attack on the woman and her mother March 16 at the woman’s Bears Den Road home.
Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond said the attack came after Atyim and the victim were at an Austintown bar with another woman and they had argued there. They continued the argument at her home and Atyim pushed her mother, Desmond said, then the victim intervened and was beaten.
Desmond said medical reports said the injuries to the woman’s face were so bad they were termed a “facial explosion,” a term he said he had never heard of before.
“Literally what happened is her face exploded,” Desmond said. “It caved in.”
He asked for a sentence of 10 years, saying that Atyim had served time on a manslaughter charge for killing a former girlfriend, arson and a burglary.
“He is extremely violent,” Desmond said.
Defense attorney Tony Meranto asked for a sentence of six years. He said his client accepted responsibility and knew he was going to go to prison and he disputed the attack on the victim’s mother as rising to the level of felonious assault, saying a jury could find that the conduct was misdemeanor assault.
The victim made a statement to the court. But she complained about the lawyers in the case and other things and would not discuss the specifics of her case and how Atyim’s conduct affected her.
She interrupted the lawyers at one point, so the judge had her removed from the courtroom.
Atyim told the judge, “I am responsible for this.” He said he had been drinking and had taken some pills, too.
Judge D’Apolito said he did not understand how someone who had been to prison before would not remove themselves from a situation where they may get in trouble again.
Atyim said he was about to leave when things got out of hand.