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WARREN -- A defendant in a 2020 Liberty shooting, whose case deadlocked a Trumbull County jury on one of the charges last month, received an indefinite seven- to nine-year prison sentence.
Daryl Casey, 27, of Hadley Avenue, Liberty, was sentenced by common pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice on Wednesday after he was found guilty of discharging a firearm into a habitation connected to a July 6, 2020, shooting outside his apartment complex.
The jury foreman on April 14 told the judge after about four hours of deliberation the panel could not come to a unanimous decision on a felonious assault charge against Casey.
Before sentencing, Casey's attorney, Walter Madison of Akron, asked the judge for a lighter sentence, noting that prior to this offense, Casey's criminal record showed no acts of violence or drug offenses.
Madison said his client stands at 5-foot-5 and weighs 90 pounds and had always been the subject of bullying because of his small stature. Madison claimed this was the case in the shooting of Casey's neighbor, Kavin Moore.
"I am not going to stand here and argue with a jury's verdict, but we may do it at the 11th District (appeals court) at some point," Madison said.
Assistant Prosecutor Michael Burnett, however, said Casey's conduct -- when he changed his story five times during police interviews and with his "soft-spoken act" during the trial -- was "deplorable." Burnett asked Rice to give a maximum sentence that would have been up to 16 years in prison.
"He was a much bigger man when he was holding that .40-caliber firearm firing at the victim," Burnett said.
Rice's sentence included a mandatory three-year term because a gun was used in the offense. After his release, Casey will have to face a possible three-year post-release probation period.
Moore, who was shot four times in the leg and still walks with a noticeable limp, testified at the trial but did not appear in court Wednesday to give a victim impact statement.
Testifying in his own defense, Casey had admitted to the jury of lying to a Liberty Township Police Department detective some 18 hours after the shooting. In that interview, he said Moore was threatening him with a knife.
During his testimony, Casey told jurors he was scared and nervous and made up the lie. He also testified Moore often picked on him because of his small stature, and he made him "feel less than a man."