Thursday, December 21, 2017
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
If Jarell Huffman had showed up for a sentencing hearing in January 2014, he likely would have received probation. But nearly four years later, Judge Anthony M. D’Apolito told Huffman he couldn’t let him walk out of court.
“If we order people to do things and they just decide they don’t want to do them anymore, what do we have? Nothing,” Judge D’Apolito said Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Huffman, 29, received a sentence of 18 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility in 2013, but he failed to appear for his 2014 sentencing hearing. Huffman had traveled out of town for the holidays and got caught in a blizzard, his attorney said.
Huffman also served about 11/2 years in an Indiana prison for dealing drugs beginning in March 2014.
The court here, however, has no record of Huffman contacting it to resolve the case in the interim.
Huffman arrived in court Wednesday after police in Detroit arrested him on a bench warrant issued by a Mahoning County judge.
The initial offense occurred when police arrested Huffman in 2013 and took him to the Mahoning County jail. A bag of marijuana fell out of his pants, his attorney said, resulting in the illegal conveyance charge.
But the judge decided his disregard of court orders required greater punishment than the initial recommendation of probation.
“The offense is not something I would put somebody in prison for,” Judge D’Apolito said. “Everything else is the problem.”
Huffman told the judge he’s “not a bad dude.” He has a record, he said, but he’s older now and has a different mentality.
The judge said it would damage the integrity of the court if Huffman received the same sentence he would have received had he not disappeared for nearly four years.
“As unpleasant as it may be to face the things that chase you, if you run, when they come back around, it will be even worse,” Judge D’Apolito said.