Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The Seventh District Court of Appeals has refused to allow Arturo Novoa, who pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering his girlfriend, Shannon Graves, 29, in 2017, to withdraw his guilty plea.

Novoa, 37, pleaded guilty in May 2019 to 43 criminal charges in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and was sentenced to 48 years and one month to life in prison.

The same appeals court later affirmed Novoa’s convictions but found that Judge Anthony Donofrio erred at Novoa’s sentencing hearing and ordered a limited resentencing.

During the resentencing, Novoa orally asked to withdraw his guilty plea, but it was denied. That denial was the basis for the current appeal.

Novoa’s original sentence of 48 years and one month to life remains intact.

Novoa and Graves lived at a home on Mahoning Avenue in Youngstown, where Novoa killed Graves. The body was later moved.

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