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Man pleads to shooting at ex-wife
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A judge called “lucky” a man he was sentencing to seven years in prison, who had pleaded guilty to shooting at an ex-wife.
Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Monday said another inch and Richard Bates would be looking at an aggravated-murder charge instead of the attempted-murder charge he pleaded guilty to.
In that case, the judge said, Bates would probably die in prison.
“I’m often surprised and amazed at how much an inch can play in the lives of people,” Judge D’Apolito said. “You’re lucky. It could have been so much worse.”
Bates, 71, pleaded guilty to shooting at his ex-wife Sept. 17, 2017, at an Austintown bar.
The plea agreement called for a seven-year sentence, but Bates can be released from prison after serving 31/2 years, which is the minimum sentence he would have to serve before applying for judicial release. He must serve the entirety of a three-year firearm specification before the other four years of his sentence takes effect.
Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin said Bates saw his ex-wife at the bar, left, came back with a gun, fired the shot that just missed her and left again. McLaughlin said when police found Bates at his home and the gun he used, a spent casing had jammed the gun. Otherwise, McLaughlin said, Bates could have kept firing.
“It’s miraculous in this case that no one was actually hurt,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said at first prosecutors were seeking a longer sentence, but because Bates’ health is declining they decided they could live with a sentence that was shorter, but that he did need to serve prison time because of the seriousness of the offense.
The victim was in court but chose not to speak.
Bates’ attorney, Tony Meranto, said his client still has no idea why he acted the way he did and sometimes has a hard time even believing he did fire a gun.
“It’s kind of like an out-of-body thing,” Meranto said.
Bates apologized before he was sentenced.