Trumbull judge refuses early release for 'Rip Van Winkle of criminals'

Staff report

WARREN

A Trumbull County judge has denied the request of Michael D. Freeman, 57, to be released early from prison.

Freeman was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2011 after being convicted at trial of aggravated robbery for stealing an MP3 player from Sears in Eastwood Mall and threatening two Sears loss-prevention officers with a box cutter in the hallway outside the store.

Freeman recently asked Judge Peter Kontos of common pleas court to let him leave prison after serving about eight years, saying his time in prison has been a “wake-up call.”

His letter said he’s actually glad he turned down a plea offer of two years in prison and went to trial because so many of the people he was “getting high and dealing with have all died of overdose.”

But Chris Becker, the assistant county prosecutor in Freeman’s case, found Freeman’s contention that he needed a “wake-up call” laughable.

As he did at Freeman’s sentencing hearing, Becker said in a legal brief that Freeman has been convicted 52 times in Trumbull and Mahoning counties and in Pennsylvania, 17 of them felonies, since 1980.

The convictions included five theft-related charges in Boardman in 2002 and 2003 and 10 theft-related charges in Pennsylvania.

“This defendant didn’t just miss the wake-up call, he lived his life like the Rip Van Winkle of criminals, sleeping through every chance and opportunity he had to wake up,” Becker wrote.