Victims of the menacing by stalking offenses of Jamie J. Longnecker of Berlin Center speak to Gina DeGenova, Mahoning County prosecutor, whose back is turned, during sentencing for Longnecker on Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Anthony D’Apolito said the remarks by victims of Jamie J. Longnecker made him see the “full effect” of the innumerable, vulgar mailings Longnecker sent to homes and businesses in Berlin Center and beyond for more than 10 years.

“Until today, I did not fully appreciate the damage that was done to the victims in the community,” the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge said before sentencing Longnecker to the maximum three years in prison on two counts of felony menacing by stalking.

D’Apolito said he read reports prior to Wednesday’s hearing that described the “havoc Mr. Longnecker caused.” But hearing from two victims of the offenses “amplified” the impact Longnecker’s deeds had on people.

“I saw panic, terror, pain, worry, a lot of emotions and feelings that people should not have to have just trying to live their lives,” he said.

He complimented Longnecker’s attorney, Max Hiltner, for providing a defense for his client, “but those factors do not convey what Mr. Longnecker actually did. His threat to the community” and “the impact it has had” cannot be appreciated by reading reports, the judge said.

Hiltner asked that Longnecker get probation and no prison time, but two victims begged the judge to give Longnecker, 47, of South Newton Falls Road, the maximum sentence. They asked for three years to give them a reprieve from Longnecker’s harassment if only for a short time.

Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Longnecker to three years of prison in August 2012 after Longnecker pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault and one count of menacing by stalking for conduct almost identical to his current charges. He spent two years in prison on those convictions.

He was indicted on 50 counts of menacing by stalking in March 2021 in the latest case. It involved offenses against scores of people, including police officers investigating him. The offenses dated back to 2017. His victims mostly were family members or friends of a young waitress at a Berlin Center restaurant where Longnecker once worked.

Longnecker was allowed to plead no contest to two counts of menacing by stalking in May, and prosecutors said they would leave it up to the judge to decide on Longnecker’s sentence.

Ken Cardinal, county assistant prosecutor, told the judge at the time that Longnecker put together and mailed envelopes containing “very suggestive sexual references to a young girl, and he was (sending) them to her family members, extended family members, friends, associates and institutions where she was attending school.”

One of the victims who spoke Wednesday was Vincent Holisky, father of the girl at the center of the harassment. He was emotional and barely able to speak when he first began. He said his daughter had no “issue with” Longnecker, only “worked at the same place.” Holisky said when his mother died, Longnecker sent a copy of the obituary to his house with a swastika on it.

He told the judge that when Longnecker goes to prison, “you get a little relief. It’s not over. We know it’s not over. You get a little relief. When we leave here and he’s back out, behind a computer, each and every one here is going to be a victim of it,” Holisky said pointing around the room at attorneys, reporters and the judge. “That’s how he operates.”

Holisky said the image on his mother’s obituary “hurt,” as did the times he worried about the safety of his child and grandchildren. He said he knows of one case in Mahoning County where a stalker turned into a murderer.

“That’s my fear is what’s next?” he said.

His niece, Laura Oxley, said of Longnecker, “None of what (Longnecker) has done is accidental. He is deliberate in what he does. He is calculating in what he does. And the things he does are disgusting. And they are terrifying.”

She said Longnecker “hurts our family. He hurts neighbors, perfect strangers, area businesses in this county and other counties and surrounding states. So it’s like no one is safe from him whether they know him or not. And no one asks to be part of his vile fantasies or his horrendous deeds that he keeps doing again and again.”

Hiltner filed a sentencing memorandum in the case Tuesday, stating Longnecker was born deaf and mute as a result of nerve damage during birth.

It adds that not only did Longnecker’s deafness and muteness create barriers between him and other children, he also “struggled to find a deaf community he could socialize with, and his nondeaf friends could not understand him.”

Adding to Longnecker’s isolation was that he learned a type of sign language as a child that was not used very commonly, the filing states.

Longnecker graduated from Youngstown Woodrow Wilson High School in 1995 from its deaf program and attended Choffin Career Center in Youngstown for its auto-body program.

He held several jobs in areas such as custodial worker, maintenance and housekeeping, manual labor and in the food service industry until he fell down steps 14 years ago, injuring his back and going on disability, the filing states.

Longnecker is now classified a Tier 1 sex offender, requiring to register his address once per year for 15 years when he leaves prison.