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Woman gets three years for firing shot during fight
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Renada Torres told a judge Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that she should have walked away from a fight with a woman in June before firing a shot.
Instead, she’ll be walking into a prison for the next three years after she was sentenced by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum on a charge of felonious assault with a firearm specification.
Torres, 34, of Rutledge Avenue, is accused of going to a woman’s Gluck Street home June 5 and bringing her children with her. Torres said she was upset because the woman’s nephew was threatening to kill her, and she argued with the woman, and then just before she left the woman threatened to kill her if she came back to her home.
That is the point when Torres said she should have just walked away. Instead, she took a gun she was carrying, waved it around and fired a shot, missing the woman. She was arrested a short time later and has been in the jail since her arrest.
“It sounds like a movie,” Judge Krichbaum said.
Judge Krichbaum asked Torres why she did not just walk away, especially because she has been to prison before and should have known not to do anything that would send her back. Torres said she wonders that, too.
“I should have just kept walking to go home and not let my temper get the best of me,” Torres said.
The victim was not present despite being notified of the hearing and also did not cooperate when a pre-sentence investigation was conducted.
Torres said she does not even recall firing her gun.
“I don’t even remember shooting anybody because I wasn’t thinking,” Torres said.
Judge Krichbaum said he is disturbed that in cases like this, people will try to settle it themselves instead of calling police.
“How is it everyone wants to take the law into their own hands?” Judge Krichbaum asked. “Was she scared? Did it work?”
“No,” Torres replied, adding that now, the children are friends again.
The sentence was agreed upon during plea negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys and Judge Krichbaum upheld their recommendation.