2006 | State v. Darrin Moore
Darrin Moore was accused in September 2003 of robbing and sexually assaulting a woman in a Boardman parking lot before stealing her car. He was 17 at the time.
After Moore turned 18 — and after he had racked up other unrelated violent felonies — prosecutors in March 2004 offered to dismiss all but his most serious charges related to the 2003 carjacking, leaving counts of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition. In exchange, Moore agreed to have his juvenile court case bound over to the county Common Pleas Court's general division.
But county prosecutors later presented the charges they previously agreed to dismiss to the grand jury, which handed up an indictment against Moore. They argued the agreement was set at the juvenile court level and was only meant to apply to Moore's juvenile court case.
Former assistant Mahoning County prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said she "sat second-chair" at the trial and was not involved in the agreement that defense attorneys used to argue Moore got an unfair deal. Rather, it was set by then-juvenile court prosecutor Anissa Modarelli, nee Jones.
None of the records provided to Mahoning Matters by the prosecutor's office suggested Cantalamessa was involved in that agreement. The office noted some of Moore's case files were redacted, including material considered to be "attorney work product," which would be ineligible for release under the state's Open Records Act.
During a 2006 hearing on that agreement, a prosecutor presumed to be Jones — but who is not named in the court filings provided to Mahoning Matters — admitted they did not expect the grand jury to indict on the agreed-upon charges. Nevertheless, the trial court found the grand jury "acted properly" when indicting Moore.
But the appeals court disagreed with that outcome, and cleared Moore's charges, which included felonious assault, failure to comply with police and receiving stolen property.
"The state's argument that the agreement was meant only to apply to the proceedings in juvenile court is rather disingenuous," wrote former appellate Judge Joseph Donofrio in a 2008 decision, with which two other judges concurred. "The assistant juvenile prosecutor agreed to dismiss certain charges. ... The state, through the prosecutor's office, agreed to dismiss certain charges, but pursued them anyway, and denied Moore the benefit of his bargain."
Former Seventh District Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Donofrio (Source: Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office)
After the case was handed back down, Moore pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary and complicity relating to the sexual assault, the latter of which had been lessened from a charge of gross sexual imposition.
About that time, Moore was also convicted on an unrelated charge of aggravated murder during his juvenile crime spree.
His total sentence was 59 years to life. He'll be eligible for parole in 2062, at 75 years old. He was also made to register as a low-level sex offender.
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "2006 | State v. Darrin Moore."