Trumbull County domestic conviction upheld in 2-1 decision
A 30-year-old Warren man had his conviction and sentence for domestic violence upheld Monday by the 11th District Court of Appeals.
In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court sided with the trial court in the case.
Warren man had appealed a three-year prison term
In September 2022, Rolfe M. Pena Jr., of Roberts Avenue NW, received a three-year prison term for a domestic violence conviction in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Pen appealed, asking the three-year sentence and conviction be vacated because the trial court failed to hold a hearing on his motion to withdraw his guilty plea.
A plea deal had been reached with prosecutors where Pena would plead guilty to the domestic violence, get a 12-month prison term and the assault charged would be dropped.
Pena was indicted May 12, 2022 on domestic violence and felonious assault charges. He changed his plea and on Sept. 29, faced Judge Ronald J. Rice for sentencing.
Questions about why the defendant violated judge’s no contact order
During the hearing, the judge and the defendant discussed why he had violated the judge’s order to have no contact with the victim.
During that conversation, the judge ended up rejecting the plea deal and sentenced Pena to the maximum three years in prison. During that conversation, the defense attorney – Jeff Goodman -- made a motion to withdraw Pena’s plea.
The question the appellate court decided was whether the defense motion was made before or after the judge pronounced sentence. Judges Eugene A. Lucci and Mary Jane Trapp ruled that when Judge Rice told the defending his jointly recommended sentence would not be accepted, that was evidence that Pena’s sentence would not be favorable to him. The judges cited case law that motions to withdraw can not be made after sentence is pronounced.
“The trial court’s statements that appellant could ‘kiss goodbye’ the jointly recommended sentence and ‘that sentence is gone’ were sufficient to place appellant on notice that he would not receive the 12-month agreed-upon sentence,” Lucci wrote.
What was the dissenting opinion?
11th District Judge John J. Eklund, however, sided with Pena. In a dissenting opinion, Eklund wrote:“Appellant moved to withdraw his guilty plea before the court sentenced him to 36 months… A hearing on a motion to withdraw a guilty plea is required for the trial court ‘to determine what circumstances justify granting such a motion’.”
Goodman argued the case in 11th District court on behalf of Pena. Arguing for the state was Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan J. Sanders.
A 28-year-old Warren woman, who lived with Pena at the time, was the victim of two domestic violence cases against the defendant – incidents that occurred on April 28 and June 30, both in 2022.
In one of the incidents, the woman was choked until she passed out and had to be taken to St. Joseph Warren Hopsital.
In November 2022, Pena received a 12-month prison sentence from another judge in the other 2022 domestic violence case. That prison term was to be served at the same time as the sentence imposed by Judge Rice.
Since 2012, Pena has been arrested on four other occasions on charges of domestic violence and twice on charges of assault, court records show.
CONNECT WITH US
WEB SITE ► https://www.mahoningmatters.com
DAILY NEWS EMAIL ► https://www.mahoningmatters.com/customer-service/newsletter-signup/
FACEBOOK ► https://www.facebook.com/mahoningmatters
TWITTER ► https://twitter.com/mahoningmatters
YOUTUBE ► https://www.youtube.com/@mahoningmatters2814
INSTAGRAM ► https://www.instagram.com/mahoningmatters
SUPPORT US ► https://givebutter.com/vNfzEW