Trending
LISBON -- A Youngstown woman who escaped a Lisbon lockup, stole a car and ran over the car owner's foot while fleeing last summer filed a challenge to her eight-year prison sentence.
Ashley Croley, 38, had the appeal filed by Max Hersch, an assistant state public defender, in the Seventh District Court of Appeals over the judgment from Feb. 9 in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Scott Washam sentenced Croley to 24 months for third-degree felony escape, 12 months for fourth-degree felony grand theft of a motor vehicle and six years for the felonious assault, a second-degree felony, with the first two counts to be served concurrently (at the same time), but consecutive to the felonious assault charge, for the total of eight years.
The felonious assault charge punishment was an indefinite sentence, meaning if the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation chooses, she could face additional time after the eight years. Her license was suspended for one year. Croley pleaded guilty to all four counts and during her sentencing, she expressed remorse for her actions that led to injury for Lisbon resident Timothy Felt. Felt testified also about what her actions did to him, costing him a job opportunity at the time and causing pain.
County Assistant Prosecutor Alec Beech represented the state and the defense attorney was James Wise.
At sentencing, Beech described the events that led to the charges against Croley, explaining that she had been ordered to spend time at the Eastern Ohio Correction Center, a community-based facility for women, located in Lisbon, for violating her probation on a drug charge last year.
She hid somewhere inside the facility on Aug. 5, 2023 and when everyone else was at dinner, she exited through an unlocked door into the fenced-in yard, climbed the fence and escaped. Within a matter of minutes, she ended up at the East of Chicago Pizza restaurant parking lot on Market Street where she noticed keys on the passenger side seat of a parked blue Chevy Cobalt, got inside and started it up.
At about that time, the owner, Felt, who had been picking up an order, came outside and saw what was happening. He ran up to his running vehicle and opened the driver side door in an attempt to stop her from stealing it. Croley put the car in reverse, causing Felt to get caught in the door, then she ran over his foot.
She left the county and ended up in Youngstown, which is where the car was found a little over a week later. Croley was later taken into custody on Sept. 28, 2023 in Youngstown by U.S. Marshals.