Defendant to judge: I've learned my lesson; I'm not so sure, judge replies

YOUNGSTOWN

Jarel Gadson told Judge John Durkin just before he was sentenced Thursday on five counts of aggravated robbery that the experience has changed him and he has “learned my lesson.”

The Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, however, pointed to an October arrest on a weapons charge while he was out on bond for the robberies – and said he was not so sure.

“That is something that raises a lot of red flags to me,” Judge Durkin said.

Gadson, 21, of Alameda Avenue, was sentenced to six years in prison for the robberies which occurred in August 2015. Four of the counts involved the robberies of Youngstown State University students in neighborhoods around the campus but not the campus itself, while the fifth robbery was of a man who arranged to meet Gadson to sell a pair of shoes in a Tyrell Avenue apartment complex.

Assistant Prosecutor Meghan Brundege said she originally sought a four-year sentence but she asked the judge Thursday to give Gadson six years because of his arrest while free on bond in October, after he already had pleaded guilty.

Read more about his case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.