Staff photo / Ed Runyan Jawwaad Pusey, center, is handcuffed to begin serving a 3-year prison sentence for a March 2019 armed robbery at the Mahoning Avenue McDonaldÕs in Austintown and destroying property at the Mahoning County Adult Justice Center. At left is his attorney James Gentile. Pusey received his sentence Thursday March 19, 2020 in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — The attorney for Jawwaad R. Pusey, 33, told Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Thursday Pusey that repeatedly scammed businesses by returning items for a refund that he didn’t buy in order to feed his drug habit.

Attorney James Gentile said the allegation that his client was trying to scam a McDonald’s employee in March 2019 to get money to feed his severe drug addiction is probably true.

Gentile said the “issue” is whether Pusey had a gun when he did it. “In my opinion, it’s very unlikely he had a gun,” Gentile said. He also told Durkin that Pusey had gotten a job while out on bond in the case and completed a substance-abuse-rehabilitation program.

Austintown police said the manager at the Austintown McDonald’s told them a man called the restaurant around 5 a.m. the day of the robbery demanding a cash refund for food he said he purchased. Two hours later, the man called again, demanding cash for the food.

When he came to the restaurant, he was told he could not get a refund without a receipt.

The man later identified as Pusey was very loud and demanding in his attempt to get the refund, police said. He pulled a gun from underneath the upper left side of his hooded sweatshirt and pointed it directly at the manager while demanding cash, a police report states.

The manager opened the cash register, and Pusey snatched money, ran from the building and got into a vehicle parked in the drive-thru lane. When the manager chased him from the store, he turned and pointed his gun at her, police said.

Durkin, who runs the common pleas drug court program, told Pusey he has seen people “make some very stupid decisions in life when they have a substance-abuse disorder,” but he added, “The steps you take from here on out will define who you are.”

The judge honored the plea agreement reached between Pusey and prosecutors and sentenced him to 18 months in prison for the McDonald’s robbery and 18 months in prison for a later incident at the Mahoning County Adult Justice Center.

Pusey pleaded guilty earlier to attempted robbery and disrupting public services. Prosecutors will not argue against Pusey being eligible for judicial release after serving six months in prison.