An officer handcuffs Dustin James after a jury found him guilty Jan. 17 of felonious assault in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He was sentenced Thurday to 8 to 12 years in prison. (Staff file photo / Ed Runyan)

YOUNGS-TOWN — Dustin L. James, 39, of Boardman, doubled the time he will spend in prison when Judge Maureen Sweeney sentenced him Thursday to eight to 12 years in prison.

A Mahoning County Common Pleas Court jury found James guilty earlier this month of felonious assault and misdemeanor domestic violence. Sweeney found him guilty of having weapons while not allowed at the same trial. The offenses are related to an assault in June 2022 on his girlfriend in their home on Shields Road in Boardman.

His new sentence will run in addition to the sentence of eight to 12 years Sweeney imposed last March. A jury found James guilty of one count of felonious assault and three counts of felony assault in a Dec. 24, 2021, incident in Boardman involving ambulance personnel.

James has a pending appeal in that case in which he attempted to stab an ambulance worker with a hypodermic syringe and assaulted a second ambulance worker and a police officer, according to a police report.

He was convicted of those offenses after a three-day trial in January 2023. James was accused of felonious assault involving two ambulance workers, but the jury found him guilty on one, which pertained to a Lane LifeTrans paramedic who injected James with the opiate reversal drug naloxone in the back of an ambulance while on South Avenue in Boardman.

The offenses for which James was sentenced Thursday happened June 19, 2022. Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Yozwiak told the jury in opening statements the evidence would show James attacked his live-in girlfriend “using brute violence to physically injure her, knock her unconscious, causing serious injuries to her face and bruising.”

James’ attorney, Mark Lavelle, however, told the jury James and his girlfriend “were raging heroin addicts for a good portion of that relationship. As a result of that disorder, they lived a tumultuous life.”

Kevin Day, another county assistant prosecutor, recommended the maximum eight to 12 years in prison for James in his remarks to Sweeney and said James “has failed to take any responsibility for his actions” in either of his criminal cases. James was free on bond on the first case when he committed the new offenses, Day said.

Day said James also was convicted of felony drug possession in Pennsylvania.

Furthermore, at least one member of the jury in James’ case pointed out James’ behavior toward the victim in the case when she testified, Day said.

The woman was “brutally beaten,” and a thick bone in her face was broken, but James was “making faces, trying to call out to her when she was walking away,” and that conduct was “completely inappropriate,” Day said.

Lavelle said James continues to maintain his innocence and will be appealing his convictions as he is appealing his earlier convictions.

James said, “I never intended or wanted this woman to have to sustain injury or to be harmed in any way.” He said he took her to the hospital “as fast as I possibly could after seeing her being injured.” He said he and the woman had been together seven years, and “I feel we have had an amazing relationship.”

He added, “I’m not trying to waste anybody’s time by coming to trial. I just wanted to have a fair trial and have my day in court.”