Trending
LISBON -- A St. Clair Township man convicted by a jury last week of aggravated burglary, resisting arrest and five counts of aggravated menacing was sentenced Thursday to serve up to seven and a half years in prison.
Common Pleas Judge Scott Washam, who heard all the evidence along with the jurors, agreed with Assistant County Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones that Robert J. White, 51, Cornell Street, East Liverpool, not only had showed no evidence he was provoked into going into his neighbor's home angrily waving a gun and threatening those inside the home with it, but he compounded the situation when he created a standoff situation with police.
Just two days prior to last Christmas, Jones said White's actions created a situation where nine police officers, from St. Clair Township Police and some members of the Special Response Team, were standing in the cold for about 90 minutes, negotiating with White and trying to determine how this would end. Even through it ended peacefully in the end, Jones said this is the worse type of resisting arrest.
"The relationship this defendant had with these individuals truly facilitated the commission of that offense in that he felt welcome I guess to walk into that home," Jones said. "But that's not how friend's treat friends…and clearly his being welcome in that home expired quickly."
When he walked into the Third Street home, White knew the resident Dave McGuire and the other three men, who were sitting with McGuire around a kitchen island – Shaun Woods, Joshua Jackson and Thomas Shields. The men were not alarmed at first, until one of them got up to get another drink and White threatened him. White reportedly pointed the gun at the back of the man's head while ordering him to sit back down.
St. Clair Township Patrolman Keith Hilderbrand, who was one of the aggravated menacing victims, appeared in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing, but declined to make a statement.
White also declined to make a statement before sentencing and his defense attorney, Joseph King, indicated White was considering filing an appeal in the case. King had asked for a minimum sentence for the charges, which included a first-degree felony.
Washam sentenced him to the range of four to up to six years for the aggravated burglary and an additional 18 months for the resisting arrest charge. The aggravated menacing counts, which are all misdemeanors will be served with a 180-day jail sentence, concurrent to the possible seven and a half years he could serve for the other two counts.
The sentence given was the one suggested by Jones, who had also pointed out White would appear to be likely to re-offend considering he was convicted in East Liverpool Municipal Court earlier this week of unrelated aggravated menacing charges related to threatening others with a sledge hammer.
During the jury trial in Common Pleas Court, a domestic violence charge for allegations involving an assault of White's girlfriend, Sonia Reed, was not pursued by the prosecutor's office. Reed wrote a letter to Washam, which was reviewed by the attorneys prior to the sentencing, but was not read aloud into the record. The jury also found White not guilty of using weapons while intoxicated.
djohnson@mojonews.com