Recently convicted defendants file appeal | News, Sports, Jobs

LISBON — Two defendants, one convicted of a 2022 stabbing attack on a woman and the other convicted of molesting a child and sentenced to prison, filed an appeal with the Seventh District Court of Appeal this week.

The jury recently found Joseph Boyer, 52, whose last known address was Ogden Street, East Liverpool, guilty of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, and domestic violence (a fourth-degree felony) for the attack that occurred on July 7, 2022, in East Liverpool. found it.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam ordered Boyer sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison for the aggravated assault and 18 months in prison for the domestic violence charge, but those sentences will be served concurrently. He received credit for 785 days already served since his arrest on the day of the incident.

Because the sentence for aggravated assault is indefinite, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction could order Boyer to serve up to four more years in addition to the eight years he must serve.

The prosecution had recommended consecutive sentences totaling at least nine years, which was the first sentence Boyer received in April 2023 after he pleaded guilty to the charges. The attempted murder charge was dropped by the prosecutor’s office due to legal problems.

Boyer attempted to withdraw his plea, but the judge refused, but his conviction was later overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the court ruled that the trial court erred in denying his motion to withdraw the guilty plea.

The case returned to Common Pleas Court, this time resulting in a jury trial that resulted in a guilty verdict and prison sentence.

Defense attorney T. Robert Bricker filed an appeal on Boyer’s behalf but also requested a withdrawal from the case and the appointment of substitute appellate counsel. What is appealed is the record of disposition as to sentence and jury verdict.

Also filing an appeal was Melissa Mills, 40, of Franklin Avenue, Salem, who was sentenced to an indefinite prison term of four to six years on three felony counts against her for physically abusing a child for a month in 2020.

Mills pleaded guilty in April to second-degree felony counts of child endangerment, third-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and child endangerment.

During the recent sentencing, Washam denied his request to withdraw his plea and ordered sentences on all three charges to be served concurrently, imposing an indeterminate sentence of four to six years for the more serious of the two child endangerments. The sentence is 18 months for other endangering children, and 3 to 4.5 years for aggravated assault. He received credit for the three days he had already served in jail.

Mills was charged with alleged child abuse and serious physical harm to a 4-year-old child from May 25, 2020, to June 17, 2020.

While he appealed the decision on 22 October, his request to withdraw his defense was rejected and he was convicted. His defense attorney at the small claims court level, Paul Conn, requested that an appellate attorney be appointed for him and that the sentence be suspended pending appeal.

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