Staff photos/ Ed Runyan Jeremy E. Telego, center, stands with his attorney, Lynn Maro, left, as Caitlyn Andrews, Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, stands at right during Telego’s plea and sentencing hearing Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Telego was sentenced to four years in prison.

YOUNGSTOWN — Jeremy E. Telego, 41, formerly of New Springfield, was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to attempted felonious assault and abduction.

The incidents happened July 16, and 17, 2022, at a Boardman motel after leaving a downtown Youngstown concert.

The woman had her friend read a long victim’s statement to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and detailed the assaults she said she suffered.

The episode, the court was told, took a toll on the victim emotionally, and she missed work for about six weeks. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She had gone to Telego’s room at the Wagon Wheel motel on Market Street in Boardman after they attended the concert together. The woman said she had known Telego in high school and started dating him many years later.

Caitlyn Andrews, Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, said Telego physically assaulted the woman and would not let her leave the motel.

Telego was recently restored to competency after he was ruled incompetent to stand trial earlier and spent several months in a state mental hospital in Massillon. He gets credit for nearly a year in jail reduced from his four-year prison sentence.

A Boardman police report states the woman told them Telego became intoxicated at the concert. She said they argued on the way to the motel, and then he pulled her out of the car and dragged her across a parking lot and into the motel room. He also would not let her leave and assaulted her, she said.

She eventually escaped through a bathroom window while Telego was sleeping, she said. She was treated at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital for injuries to her ear and bruising elsewhere on her body, police said.

Telego did not offer any comments during the hearing.

‘OUT OF CONTROL’

Lynn Maro, Telego’s attorney, however, told the judge that Telego went “out of control” and became “upset”at the concert because a concert T-shirt he bought disappeared.

She said the victim recorded 40 minutes of audio on her phone that showed that Telego’s “paranoia was very clear. There are reasons he was sent to Heartland (Behavioral Healthcare) for restoration — extreme paranoia is present through the whole 40 minutes of the recording.”

She said the phone recorded Telego “saying things that don’t make sense. Nonetheless, they go to the Wagon Wheel. They both had been drinking. There is discussion how they shouldn’t have drank so much. He does tell her she can’t leave the hotel room.”

Maro cited three times at the motel where the victim was outside while Telego was inside the room. She said the plea agreement for reduced charges came from a discussion of those facts.

The defense and prosecution jointly recommended that Telego get four years in prison for the offenses. The victim agreed with the recommended sentence, Andrews said. Because the sentence was jointly recommended by the prosecution and defense, Telego cannot appeal his sentence, the judge said.

THREATS AND MANIPULATION

The victim’s statement said the woman started dating Telego before the incident, then she tried to break off the relationship. But he “started to threaten me and manipulate me into doing what he wanted.”

He threatened to kill her, she said. “Nothing was ever good enough,” the letter stated.

The night of the concert, Telego was intoxicated. She said he asked everyone to help him find his shirt, which he had taken off because it was a hot night. Then he saw a shirt in a man’s back pocket and took it, which started an argument.

Telego then started “fighting” with her, she said. She said she walked away from Telego, but when he would approach her again, she would record him on her phone.

He followed her to her car and told her he was going to kill her and “break every bone in my face.” She drove him to the motel and he continued to threaten her. He later punched her in the stomach and threw her phone into the back seat. He restrained her in the back of the car and covered her mouth, she said.

She said she tried to run away, but he grabbed her and pulled her into the motel room, she said. He let her clean her bloody nose in the bathroom. She told him she needed to go to the emergency room, but he made her get into the bed. He passed out, and she fled through the bathroom window of the motel, she said. She drove herself to the hospital.

erunyan@vindy.com