Staff photo / Ed Runyan Eddie Crook Jr. looks into the gallery Monday while apologizing to the woman he assaulted July 5, fracturing her jaw in three places and causing other injuries. At right is Crook’s attorney, Paul Conn. Crook was working as a temporary employee and was training with AstroShapes of Struthers when he assaulted the woman, who was training him on a machine. At right is Crook’s attorney, Paul Conn.

YOUNGSTOWN — Eddie L. Crook Jr., 29, of Youngstown had been out of prison about eight months when he assaulted a supervisor at AstroShapes in Struthers last July, breaking her jaw in three places and cutting her face.

Crook pleaded guilty March 21 to felonious assault of the woman and a separate grand theft of $76,000 worth of medical services and received between 6.9 years and 8.4 years in prison Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

At the time of the offense, Crook had just completed an eight-year prison sentence handed down in 2012 in Mahoning County for aggravated robbery with a gun. The Alabama native returned to Youngstown, where a temp agency placed him at the factory.

Struthers police said they were called to the plant at 2:30 a.m. and observed the victim, who could not speak because of her injuries and had large amounts of blood covering her shirt, hands and face.

Witnesses said the victim, 33, was training Crook how to operate a piece of machinery and was “disrespectful” toward her, police said.

After the victim corrected Crook multiple times, witnesses said, he punched her in the face, causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head on one of the machines. Crook left the scene before police arrived.

AstroShapes later sued Corptemps Staffing of Niles and Crook, alleging Corptemps referred Crook to AstroShapes for a temporary job and failed to reveal Crook’s criminal record to AstroShapes.

Kevin Trapp, assistant prosecutor, said Crook “took offense for some reason,” punched her in the face, causing her to hit her face on machinery. In addition to the broken jaw, she had “a large laceration” and needed several months of recuperation and rehabilitation.

“She is still not 100 percent,” your honor, Trapp said.

The victim was present at the hearing but did not speak. “She’s still very emotionally scarred,” Trapp said. But she provided photographs of the injuries to her face that were shown to Judge Anthony Donofrio. Drinking from a cup can be difficult, Trapp noted.

Based on the injuries he caused and his record, “He should be incarcerated for a lengthy period of time,” Trapp said.

Crook’s attorney, Paul Conn, said Crook had a “rough upbringing” and was in the care of Children Services as a child in Alambama. He came to Ohio to complete his education, “but he kept getting into trouble,” Conn said.

He said Crook’s “dog-eat-dog” existence was such that “every slight had to be responded to. He got in with a worse crowd than he was in with before he went in (to prison), and he did get involved with one of the gangs in prison to protect himself.”

Conn said while working for the victim, he “perceived disrespect” from the supervisor. He has an “anger management problem, and he realizes that,” Conn said.

Crook told the judge that when he came home from prison, “I tried to put my best foot forward” and was working 16 hour days at two jobs, but “every time I asked for help, somebody turned me down. Same with this situation whereas I asked for help from a supervisor, and he gave me no help.”

He said the problem festered over a couple days, when the victim and another supervisOr gave him conflicting instructions on how to do the work. “Now I’m between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “I’m getting ping-ponged between two individuals.”

He said he decided to leave, but “she (was) yelling in my face, I react. I was wrong,” Crook said.

The judge noted that Crook was still on parole from his earlier prison sentence when this happened.

“None of what you told me excuses the conduct you engaged in that day,” the judge said.

He sentenced Crook to 3 to 4.5 years in prison for the felonious assault and the grand theft. But the judge also ordered Crook to serve the nearly four years left on his probation from the earlier prison sentence for a total of 6.9 years to 8.4 years.

The grand theft charge resulted from Crook giving a false name to employees of Mercy Health Youngstown Hospital in Aug. 19, 2020, while the U.S. Marshals Service was looking for him in the AstroShapes assault.

Crook was in the hospital for a gunshot wound he said he suffered while walking on Hillman Street. The grand theft charge was for the $76,700 in medical bills incurred during his hospital stay.

erunyan@tribtoday.com