YOUNGSTOWN — A man who in February reached a plea deal with prosecutors was sentenced to serve 27 years in prison on a variety of sex offense convictions.

Donavin Matthew Chipps, 27, who had previous addresses in Canfield, Poland and Diamond, took the deal shortly before jury selection was to begin in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He was before Judge John Durkin on Friday for sentencing.

On Feb. 6, Chipps pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree rape, a second-degree sexual battery charge; two counts of gross sexual imposition, third- and fourth-degree offenses; and one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

Mahoning County sheriff’s detectives investigated a tip that initially led to eight felony charges, which included four felony / life rape counts against Chipps.

Investigators say the three alleged victims ranged in age from 6 to 14 years old when incidents took place between March 2014 and July 2015 across Mahoning County. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in late August 2021 on a secret Mahoning County grand jury indictment.

Chipps has since been held in the Mahoning County jail without bond.

SENTENCING MEMO

Prior to Friday’s hearing, Chipps’ attorney, Michael Kivlighan, filed a sentencing memo telling Durkin his client will have spent 581 days in the Mahoning County jail.

The filing states that the time Chipps has spent in jail has “allowed (Chipps) to acknowledge how his troubled upbringing, alcohol and drug abuse and the prior sexual abuse of himself led to this criminal activity.”

He was “born into an unhealthy environment that was both unhealthy and sexually inappropriate,” the filing states. “After he was abandoned by his biological mother, he was taken in by a great-aunt. While in the care of his great-aunt, he was physically and sexually abused by her husband,” the filing continues.

“Due to that abuse, he was returned to his mother’s house, where he witnessed her overdose on drugs, engage in inappropriate sexual behaviors and allow Donavin to be sexually abused by (another relative),” Kivlighan stated.

He later lived with another family, which did not accept Chipps’ homosexuality, which led Chipps to alcohol and Xanax and “excessively watching pornography,” the filing states.