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Man gets year in prison on drug, gun charges
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
For the second day in a row Wednesday, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum sentenced a defendant to some sort of incarceration on a gun charge even though prosecutors, defense attorneys and probation officials were recommending probation.
Kashmere Womack, 25, of Megan Circle, was sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to a year in prison on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and possession of cocaine. The charges stem from a February traffic stop on Hillman Street when reports said Womack ran from a car that was pulled over by city police.
He was caught a short while later after a brief chase, and he had a .40-caliber handgun on him, reports said. Womack was not the driver of the car, who was also arrested on gun charges. His case has yet to be heard.
Womack’s attorney, Lynn Maro, said Womack had the gun because he had been shot last summer, and he feared for his safety. Maro said Womack is in the “rap industry,” and that he told the person preparing his pre-sentence report: “It’s a dangerous industry to be in. People don’t like to see you succeed.”
Womack said he has never been arrested before, and he had the gun for protection.
“When I started with my rap career, things happened,” Womack told the judge. “There’s no reason for me to have a gun. But I was in fear for my life. It [getting shot] could happen to me again. They never found the guy. It could happen again.”
Judge Krichbaum said he was concerned that Womack was with a person he was not supposed to be with, and that he has a criminal record and what the judge described as a horrendous traffic record.
Maro said his client has family support and Womack’s family was in court with him, but that did not sway Judge Krichbaum.
On Tuesday, prosecutors also recommended probation for a man who had a stolen gun, and Judge Krichbaum gave him tha maximum term of probation, five years, with the first six months of that probation to be served in the county jail.