Man takes back plea in home invasion case

May 12, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Jordan Kennedy has decided to roll the dice.

Kennedy, 25, who was to be sentenced Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for his role in an April 2016 home invasion on the South Side, decided to take back his guilty pleas in the case despite a reminder from Judge Anthony D’Apolito that by opting to go to trial he could receive a far greater sentence than he would have received.

As a man in the gallery shook his head “no” when the judge asked one last time if Kennedy wanted to take his plea back, Kennedy said he did.

Kennedy had entered an Alford Plea to charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary with a fiream specification in an invasion at a home on East Avondale Avenue. Kennedy is accused of being one of three men – one of the other two was his father – who broke into the home.

Kennedy’s father also entered guilty pleas in the case and is expected to receive a four-year prison sentence today. The third person in the case received a 14-year prison sentence earlier.

An Alford Plea means a defendant maintains innocence but admits that there is enough evidence that a jury may reasonably conclude that they are guilty.

Kennedy told Judge D’Apolito he wanted to take his plea back because he was unaware of an earlier offer to allow him to plead guilty and receive just a three-year sentence. The plea agreement in Kennedy’s case did not call for a sentencing recommendation. Judge D’Apolito said he thought Kennedy was concerned he would receive the maximum sentence.

Kennedy also said he was unhappy with his lawyer, and Judge D’Apolito agreed to appoint him a new attorney. But the judge also warned him about taking back his plea, saying that even though he only entered an Alford Plea to two charges, now that his plea has been taken back he would now face all the charges on which he was indicted, which are being a felon in possession of a firearm, burglary and robbery.

Judge D’Apolito also told Kennedy that by opting to go to trial, a jury would hear all the facts of the crime, and so would a judge, and that could influence his sentence to be as much or greater than the 14-year maximum should he be convicted.

Typically at plea and sentencing hearings, judges do not hear all the facts of a case, Judge D’Apolito said.

But Kennedy was undeterred, saying he wanted to take his plea back.

A lawyer will be appointed for Kennedy, and his case will resume once that lawyer is appointed and gets up to speed on the case.