YOUNGSTOWN — George Gutierres, 33, who pleaded guilty in December 2019 to attempted cocaine possession in connection to the Oct. 25, 2018, murder of Josh Donatelli at Donatelli’s home on Imperial Street, was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison.

Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court handed down the sentence. Gutierres gets credit for more than three years in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.

Gutierres’ plea agreement in 2019 eliminated the involuntary manslaughter charge he faced initially. His co-defendant,Lavontae Knight, now 27, was charged with murder, aggravated murder and other charges. He pleaded guilty in September to involuntary manslaughter in Donatelli’s death and received an eight-year prison sentence.

That sentence will be served at the same time as the 58-years-to-life sentence Knight received in another 2018 murder, the shooting death of Trevice Harris and wounding Harris’ girlfriend Dec. 30, 2018 on the city’s South Side. Knight was convicted at trial in that case in August 2022.

Gutierres never had to testify at Knight’s trial in the Donatelli case because Knight pleaded guilty, but part of Gutierres’ plea required him to testify if Knight’s case in the Donatelli killing would have gone to trial.

Gutierres’ attempted cocaine possession carried a sentence of up to eight years. The plea agreement reached with Gutierres in 2019 called for him to get four years in prison with the possibility of getting out in six months.

Gutierres’ sentencing was held Tuesday as a result of all matters involving the Donatelli case being resolved by the plea and sentencing of Knight.

When Rob Andrews, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, was asked Tuesday whether Gutierres had any role in Donatelli’s killing since his conviction was for drug possession, he declined to comment.

Court documents in the case state that Gutierres confessed to being present at the homicide with another man, whom he accused of being the shooter, but Gutierres refused to identify the shooter, according to Vindicator files.

The defense hired expert witness Margaret Bull Kovera to testify on Knight’s behalf on cross racial identification, which refers to a witness identifying a suspect of a different race.

The case involving Knight, Gutierres and victim Donatelli also was notable for Knight’s attorney, Dave Betras, asking for Dawn Cantalamessa, a then-Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, to be removed from the case because of evidence helpful to the defense being provided late to the defense.

Durkin did remove Cantalamessa from the case.

erunyan@vindy.com