'Monster' man gets 48 years in prison for sex assaults

WARREN

Even Michael Peach admitted to police he was a “monster” for the sexual assaults he committed against a boy and physical assaults on his family last year.

On Thursday, Peach, 40, of Niles, got 48 years in prison, long enough, prosecutors hope, that he won’t ever be able to victimize anyone again.

Peach pleaded guilty in April to 18 felony charges, including gross-sexual imposition against the boy, 9.

But Peach also pleaded guilty to many other charges related to an apparent attempt to kill the boy and his family to cover up his crimes after the boy reported them to his mother, prosecutors said.

Gabe Wildman, assistant prosecutor, told Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that Peach was twice convicted of sex crimes against boys in Stark County before his Trumbull County crimes.

Early Dec. 9, Peach went to the boy’s home on Poplar Street in Weathersfield Township wearing a ski mask, in possession of a hunting knife, stun gun and backpack containing duct tape and rope, Wildman said in a court document.

He found the boy’s mother in the house and used the stun gun on her while demanding that she tell him where to find the boy.

But the boy’s father was able to disarm Peach, who ran away and later tried to kill himself by cutting his own throat, the document says.

The boy’s father described Peach’s behavior in the house to be like “Michael Myers from the Halloween horror movie series,” according to a court document.

Peach later admitted to police he is a “monster” for what he did.