Austintown child-sex convict gets 9.5-year prison sentence

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A 46-year-old Austintown man is going to prison for 91⁄2 years, after pleading guilty to 13 counts of gross sexual imposition against six girls ranging from age 6 to 11, between May 2009 to July 2011.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the prison term Tuesday on Delmas Hayes Jr. of Burkey Road. Hayes could have been sentenced to up to 39 years in prison had maximum consecutive sentences been imposed.

In the plea deal, Dawn Cantalamessa, an assistant county prosecutor, dropped a rape count that could have put Hayes in prison for life and agreed to recommend 10 years in prison.

The mother of two of the victims told police in July 2011 that her daughters told her Hayes put his hand down the fronts of their pants when they visited his home.

One of the girls said she saw Hayes touch the buttocks of another girl in his residence.

The girls were friends of Hayes’ daughter and spending the night with her when the incidents occurred, police reports said.

The victims’ mother told police the girls didn’t tell her sooner because they were afraid they’d get into trouble.

In a sentencing memorandum, Hayes’ lawyer, Thomas E. Zena, asked Judge Krichbaum to consider that Hayes “was a husband and father, who worked every day to support his family” and who has no prior criminal record. In court, Zena asked the judge to consider sentencing Hayes to one year in prison per victim.

“They’ll be forever impacted and scarred because of this man. We trusted him with the safety and care of our children. He violated and destroyed that trust,” said the mother of one of the victims. “What he did was horrible, sick and unjustifiable.”

“Your honor, please do us a favor. Give him the maximum sentence. We need to keep him off the streets and away from our children,” she added.

The mother of two other victims read a letter from her 10-year-old daughter, in which that victim wrote that she has suffered “nightmares, insecurity and loneliness” since she was sexually molested. “I hate him with all my heart,” the victim wrote of Hayes.

“I’m sorry for burdening the parents. I’m sorry for hurting the children,” a tearful Hayes told the judge. “I understand that I must pay for my crimes because it’s God’s will,” Hayes added.

Judge Krichbaum expressed “absolute disgust” with Hayes’ conduct and described Hayes’ crimes as “horrible, unspeakable and unforgiveable.”

Hayes will be on parole for five years after he leaves prison and must register with the sheriff as a sex offender every six months for 25 years.