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Man gets 18 months on gun, drug charges
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
His lawyer said he was lured in by the easy money, while Malik Clay said he had no other options than to sell drugs.
Clay, 20, learned one of the prices for being in “The Game,” as some call the drug trade, as he was sentenced Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to 18 months in prison on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of cocaine and possession of heroin.
Clay was arrested June 1 after members of the police department’s vice squad and Community Police Unit served a search warrant investigating drug activity at his South Portland Avenue home on the West Side and found the drugs along with six guns, including a sawed-off .12-gauge shotgun and an AR-15 assault rifle.
Prosecutors and defense attorney John Shultz agreed on the sentence, which they recommended to Judge Lou D’Apolito.
Shultz said his client’s story is all too common in the city: he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and turned to the drug trade because of the easy money.
Being arrested taught his client the pitfalls of The Game.
“It came too easily at first, but now he realizes with these temptations comes horrible results,” Shultz said.
He urged the judge to honor the recommended sentence, saying his client has never had an adult criminal conviction.
“He’s at the age where he’s redeemable,” Shultz said.
Clay took responsibility for his actions and said he wanted to change, both for the young son he has now and the child who is on the way. Judge D’Apolito told Clay he has already won a major victory just by being alive because of the dangerous nature of the actions he was engaged in with guns and drugs.
“You already won because you’re alive playing in this game,” Judge D’Apolito said.
The judge asked Clay why he got into selling drugs in the first place. Clay said he had no other way to earn money.
“I had no other options,” Clay said.
Clay asked for time to report to prison because his son’s birthday is coming up. Judge D’Apolito said he could not do that, because he wants Clay to know there is a price to be paid for being involved with guns and drugs. Clay also told the judge his unborn child will be born at the end of the month. Judge D’Apolito told Clay he hopes he thinks of that while he is in his cell.
“I want to make it hard,” Judge D’Apolito said. “I want you to understand the consequences of being foolish.”