Staff photo / Ed Runyan Brandon Clinkscale, right, stands with his attorney, Walter Madison, on Tuesday while addresssing Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The judge gave Clinkscale three years in prison for driving his brother to Cleveland after his brother fired shots at plainclothes investigators with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

YOUNGSTOWN — Brandon Clinkscale, 28, got the maximum sentence of three years in prison Tuesday for driving his brother, Marquise J. Hornbuckle, 26, to Cleveland after his brother fired shots at undercover state highway patrol investigators Nov. 8, 2019, on the South Side.

It was the sentence prosecutors recommended after Clinkscale pleaded guilty earlier to one count of obstruction of justice. Both brothers had an address on West Evergreen Avenue.

Assistant Prosecutor Michael Rich told Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that the plea agreement and recommended sentence were reached after discussion with the victims — members of the highway patrol — who are in agreement.

Rich said Clinkscale was in a different vehicle than his brother, and all of the shots were fired from his brother’s vehicle.

Krichbaum sentenced Hornbuckle to 29 to 34 1/2 years in prison Dec. 16.

Clinkscale’s attorney, Walter Madison, said Clinkscale took responsibility for his “post-incident involvement in this matter.”

Clinkscale told the judge he accepts responsibility and wants to take his time in prison to “rehabilitate my mind … so I can move on with my life.”

Hornbuckle had reached an agreement in the case to get a 10-year prison sentence, but he did not show up for his Dec. 7 sentencing. His bail bondsman brought him back.

Because he did not appear for sentencing, Krichbaum ignored Hornbuckle’s recommended sentence and tripled it.

“I didn’t like the deal to begin with,” the judge told Hornbuckle at the time. “When you violate the orders of this court or violate the conditions of bond, all bets are off. There is no deal,” Krichbaum said.

SHOOTOUT

Hornbuckle’s crimes took place at West Warren Avenue and Summer Street on the South Side about 2 p.m. while the troopers were investigating the theft of two vehicles, court documents state.

The troopers were assigned to the Warren district’s Vehicle Theft and Fraud Unit and were working in conjunction with the Youngstown Police Department.

They noticed a white Chevrolet Tahoe with no front license plate being driven in the area of West Evergreen Avenue, then saw it parked at an address on West Evergreen. The troopers later saw a dark-colored Tahoe owned by the rental company Hertz.

Officers then saw those two Tahoes and a third one traveling fast together on Hillman Street. The vehicles eventually split up.

Two of the Tahoes later returned to the West Evergreen area, and their drivers pulled into the Warren and Summer intersection and blocked it. Clinkscale was in one of the Tahoes.

The windows went down on the Tahoe in which Hornbuckle was riding, and guns were fired toward the troopers, who returned fire and backed up to avoid the gunfire.

The troopers were not injured.