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Man sentenced to 35 years for shooting at cops
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Warned by his attorney not to speak because of his plans to appeal, the man convicted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court of shooting at two city police officers last January asked a judge for leniency.
As several police officers from Youngstown and Boardman watched in court Monday, Gerald Wainwright, 26, said being behind bars the past year waiting for his trial on two counts of felonious assault on a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm was worse than the early morning when he was shot after firing at officers Timothy Edwards and Brandon Caraway as they were patrolling on the South Side.
“At the end of the day, I lost everything,” Wainwright said. “This whole year I’ve been dealing with a burden on my heart. It hurt worse than the bullet holes that went through me.”
Judge Maureen Sweeney, however, was not swayed, as she sentenced Wainwright to the maximum sentence of 35 years in prison for the shooting.
Edwards and Caraway sought to question Wainwright about 2:30 a.m. Jan. 27, 2018, at Hillman Street and Princeton Avenue after they saw him walking in the street in a high-crime area wearing a mask and carrying a backpack.
The city has an ordinance that pedestrians must walk on the sidewalk if one is provided or clear of obstruction.
Wainwright ran, and as he was running, he turned around and fired a gun at the officers, who were chasing him in their cruiser. The officers returned fire, and Wainwright was wounded in the exchange.
During his trial, his attorney, Michael Kivlighan, admitted Wainwright fired a gun but said Wainwright fired away from the officers to scare them away, not toward them to injure them.
Kivlighan asked for a sentence of 20 years, saying his client has mental-health issues stemming from the death of both parents early in his life and was homeless at the time of the shooting.
Assistant Prosecutor Michael Yacavone asked for the maximum sentence, saying it is the responsibility of the criminal justice system to not just protect the public, but to protect those who are the public’s protectors.