Trending
LISBON -- The man caught with weapons in his Columbiana County jail cell twice while awaiting trial for aggravated murder opted to plead guilty Monday to the weapons charges, with eight to 12 years added to the 23 years to life he's already serving in prison.
Justin Givens, 28, formerly of Salineville, appeared in a suit before Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam to enter the plea to two counts of first-degree felony possession of deadly weapons while under detention.
He was in street clothes instead of an orange jail outfit since one of his two jury trials was slated to start that morning. As potential jurors waited in the hallway and were sent on a break, the paperwork was being prepared after Givens indicated he wanted to enter a plea instead of going through with the trials. After the plea and immediate sentencing, members of the jury pool were brought into the courtroom and excused.
The indictments alleged Givens possessed a razor blade and a piece of copper fashioned into a weapon while incarcerated in the county jail, awaiting trial on the aggravated murder case for the 2022 shooting death of Mary Ann McGuire. The razor blade incident occurred Oct. 26, 2022 and the copper weapon incident occurred April 4, 2023 with a separate jury trial set for each. The second trial, set for Thursday, was canceled.
Givens entered a plea last year to Mary Ann McGuire's murder on March 18, 2022 at her Depot Road home, outside Lisbon, receiving a sentence of 23 years one month to life in prison for murder, a gun specification for using a gun to commit the offense, grand theft when the property is a firearm or dangerous ordnance, two counts of tampering with evidence, aggravated possession of drugs, endangering children, improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle, and another endangering children charge. The improper handling and second endangering children charge stemmed from a Dec. 26, 2021 traffic stop when he had a firearm in the vehicle with children present. He filed an appeal over the sentence.
Washam agreed with the recommendation of county Assistant Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones and sentenced Givens to an indefinite term of eight to 12 years each for the two weapons charges, agreeing they could be served concurrently, or at the same time, with each other, but consecutive to the 23 years one month to life prison sentence he's already been serving.
Givens said he had nothing to say when asked if he wanted to speak at sentencing.
The maximum possible sentence for the weapons charges was 11 to 16 1/2 years in prison. The minimum was three years to four and a half years.
Jones said the razor blade, which had a Band-Aid wrapped around the end, was found in Givens' cell on Oct. 26, 2022 during a security sweep of the pod after two inmates overdosed, including Givens. On April 4, 2023, she said Givens appeared to have a broom stick in his cell, which had a piece of copper pipe inside with the end sharpened.
In asking for the sentence and having it run consecutive to the murder sentence, Jones pointed to Givens' record of crime involving weapons, from the murder to having a gun in a car with children and then having deadly weapons in jail while awaiting trial for those other charges. She said the public needing protected included not just the public in general, but also the corrections officers and other inmates at the jail.
"It's not okay to continue to commit crimes just because you have a serious charge pending," she said.
Defense attorney James Wise requested the sentence for the weapons charges be served at the same time as the murder and other counts, pointing out that Givens will be 51 years old before he's eligible to go before the parole board 23 years from now.
"Mr. Givens has taken responsibility," Wise said.
He also said neither weapon was brandished, saying the razor blade was used to cut drugs. He said he didn't believe the broom stick was sharpened, but that it was broken off.
When asked about the broom stick later, Jones explained that the metal broom stick was hollow with a copper pipe inside, with the pipe bent and sharpened and tape over the other end.