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WARREN -- A Mineral Ridge man on Wednesday pleaded to a felonious assault charge that stemmed from a March 3 incident in Weathersfield.
Donald A. Cotterman, 20, of Depot Street, Mineral Ridge, appeared with his lawyer Mary Ellen Ditchey before Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay, who alerted him he faces a potential 8-to-12-year prison term after being convicted of the charge.
According to prosecutors, however, the 17-year-old female victim said she doesn't want to see the defendant go to prison. Prosecutor Gabriel Wildman said the two people had a sexual relationship.
At 5:15 p.m. March 3, police officers were called to a Weathersfield address about a possible rape. A Trumbull County 911 report from the call showed that evidence was gathered from a trash can.
Court records show Cotterman was named in a sealed indictment on a first-degree rape charge, but after both he and Ditchey agreed about facts of the case, the charge was reduced to a felonious assault, a second-degree felony.
Cotterman will be sentenced after he undergoes a background investigation conducted by the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department.
The plea headed off a jury trial scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 16.
Meanwhile, Cotterman remains incarcerated pending the posting of a $75,000 bond. Trumbull County jail records show he was booked into the facility on June 6.