Adrienne Washington Jr. is seen with his attorneys July 1, 2022, during his sentencing hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Washington got 8 to 10 1/2 years in prison for causing a fatal car crash in Youngstown while fleeing from police.

YOUNGSTOWN — The public has received several types of messages in recent years about crime. One message came in response to a wave of killings in Youngstown in 2021, punctuated by the shooting death of 10-year-old Persayus Davis-May, who died from a bullet that passed into her home on Samuel Avenue on the South Side. The gunfire was apparently intended for adults.

The message was that something needed to be done, and law enforcement responded with extra patrols and help from other area law enforcement agencies. Two years later, violent crime in Youngstown has been cut in half.

Another message was that homicides in big cities such as Chicago spiked in 2021 — the second year of COVID-19. Chicago had the highest number of homicides in 2021 in 25 years.

However, a tool called the Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer shows that the rate of violent crime in America and Ohio between 2008 and 2022 has dropped.

The tool shows that violent crime fell 17% in the United States and 15.9% in Ohio over that time frame.

Other numbers — criminal cases in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and Youngstown Municipal Court — have surfaced as well. In both courts, the number of cases is down significantly over the past 20 years.

CLOSER LOOK

The number of cases in common pleas and municipal court plunged between 2020 and 2022 during the worst part of COVID-19, which fits with what was going on at the time — less social interaction among the public and between law enforcement and the public.

But a closer look by The Vindicator at court cases at the county and Youngstown level shows that the number of cases has consistently dropped for at least the past 15 years.

For instance, the number of new Mahoning County Common Pleas Court cases in 2019 (before COVID) was 1,105. Twelve years earlier in 2007, there were 1,611 new cases. In Youngstown’s municipal court, there were 1,987 cases in 2019. Twelve years earlier in 2007, there were 4,030 cases.

WHY?

So why has the number of criminal cases declined in Mahoning County and Youngstown? Two key people involved in the court system — Gina DeGenova, county prosecutor and Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, who has been a common pleas court judge in Mahoning County since 1991 — weighed in.

DeGenova said data from her office supports the numbers generated by The Vindicator.

“Our numbers reveal that between the years 2013 and 2019, which was prior to COVID, we filed an average of 1,300 felony cases each year,” DeGenova stated in an email. “This number has decreased since COVID. While I cannot say what specific factors caused this drop over the last decade, a report published by the Ohio Department of Public Safety reveals a 17% overall reduction in crime between the years 2016 through the end of 2022.”

DeGenova said she cannot predict whether the number of criminal cases will return to 2019 levels, “but as long as I am the prosecutor, the public can expect that I will continue to implement strategies and programs to reduce crime.”

She mentioned several initiatives she has instituted to promote public awareness and safety, such as a speaker’s bureau that involves messages to senior citizens, for instance, on how to avoid being a victim of crime. She also mentioned the Senior Calendar, which her office is creating in partnership with Sheriff Jerry Greene, containing tips on how to avoid becoming victims to scams and fraud.

When she was asked whether the drop in criminal prosecutions is good or bad, she said: “Our office works with local law enforcement on a daily basis. We prosecute the cases that are presented to this office and work with law enforcement toward reducing crime.”

POPULATION

Certainly one reason for the decline in cases is the decline in the population of Youngstown and Mahoning County.

According to U.S. Census data, Youngstown had a population of 60,270 in 2021, down 13% from 2008, when the number was 73,376. Mahoning County had a population of 226,762 in 2021, down 6.1% from 241,572 in 2008.

The decline in criminal cases between 2008 and 2019 was 27.6% at the common pleas court level. The percentage at city’s municipal court was about 45% during that same time period.

FROM THE BENCH

Krichbaum has been serving as a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge longer than any of the other common pleas judges and has been involved in the criminal justice system dating back to the 1970s, when he was a bailiff for common pleas court Judge Clyde Osborne.

A Youngstown native, Krichbaum has been a common pleas judge since 1991 after serving as a defense attorney starting in 1980.

Krichbaum said he thinks one factor in the case numbers dropping between 2008 and 2019 is the decrease in the number of law enforcement officers in Youngstown. He specifically cited the number of detectives, saying the number was much higher in earlier days.

In July, Capt. Brad Blackburn of the Youngstown Police Department said the department had 85 patrol officers, which he said was the lowest number in 25 years. In March of 2022, the department had 87 patrol officers. It had 93 patrol officers in September of 2021, according to Vindicator archives.

One thing the judge does not believe has changed is the nature of violent crime.

“I think violent crime — what people do to other people — has not changed from when I first started,” he said. “It has been rather constant. I think a lot of crime is drug driven. That has evolved to be one of the primary causes of crime. A lot of cases are the result of people being in the drug culture.”

Krichbaum said one thing that is different in Youngstown today than years ago is the amount of gang activity.

“When there was gang activity, that boosted the crime rate dramatically because they were at war all the time,” he said.

He said that over the years, the amount of crime dropped when large numbers of gang members had been sent away to prison.

“It didn’t spike up the next wave in crime until the younger people started new gangs,” he said. “That was cyclical for a while in my opinion.”

Krichbaum said he thinks crime has decreased as the population has declined and he thinks some categories of crime have dropped.

“Burglaries were pretty big at one time because there were a lot of people with money,” he said.

He said the number of new cases coming into the common pleas court each year changes the number of cases each of the five general division judges handles, but the amount of effort a judge puts forth stays the same.

“What I know is each of these criminal cases — whether you have 150 per judge or 200 per judge — requires and demands that we give everything we have to it so that justice is done and done the right way,” he said.

“I really don’t feel like my job is easier. I don’t feel like if I do have fewer cases — and I do than when I first started — I’d like to think it gives us the opportunity to do it better.”

He said some cases require more time than others. Some cases involve more motions and more time, such as a capital murder case.

But there are “constitutional and statutory demands and time limits for getting cases done, and we are bound by them. But you can never underestimate the creativity of the lawyers or … the fact that there are unique issues that arise in each case.

“And no matter how many cases I’ve done in my life — which is more than anybody else — there are unique issues that arise in every case. That’s one of the great things about this job. You learn something new every day. There is a different pitch they come up with every day,” he said.

A DIFFERENT WAY OF DOING THINGS

As for the early days of COVID-19, Krichbaum said the grand jury actually stopped meeting for a while.

“There were different opinions about how to proceed — whether we should do court hearings or not do court hearings,” he said. “We did court hearings the same as we always did, and if the lawyers wanted to participate and the defendants wanted participate, then that’s what we did.

“If they objected to it because of COVID, then we honored that objection.”

Some cases were postponed, but not in any major way. “I was never a fan of doing cases from a video from the jail. But during COVID I did countless cases with the defendant on video and the defense counsel either here or at the jail or on their own video. But we got the work done. We were able to get it done even though there was that significant hurdle.”

MARIJUANA APPROACH

He noted that because the voters have legalized recreational marijuana, there are likely to be fewer marijuana prosecutions. There was a time decades ago when a person could get up to 20 years in prison for possessing or trafficking the drug. But over the years, the laws regarding marijuana have changed.

“And that could be part of that reduction” in cases, he said.

NATIONAL CRIME STATS

The New York Times reported in October that the most recent crime data from the FBI indicated that the number of murders declined 6% in 2022 compared to 2021 but is still higher than before COVID-19 began.

It also showed that gun violence is pervasive and costing more young lives.

But the article noted that “perception has long been out of step with reality when it comes to public safety, with Americans consistently saying that they believe crime is on the rise even as the numbers have marched downward.”