YOUNGSTOWN – Judge R. Scott Krichbaum called today’s video sentencing of Bernard Hasley, 29, of Benita Avenue “historic” because the veteran judge had never sentenced a defendant by video until this mornning.

The sentencing was done by video in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to protect the deputies who would have had to bring Hasley to the Mahoning County Courthouse for the hearing and to protect Hasley, Krichbaum said.

The protection was from spreading the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than a dozen people in Mahoning County in recent weeks.

Hasley pleaded guilty earlier to two counts of felonious assault with a firearm and agreed to be sentenced to 7 to 9 years in prison – the sentence Krichbaum gave Hasley today.

Hasley’s convictions were for shooting two people last October.