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YOUNGSTOWN -- Dustin L. James, 39, of Shields Road in Boardman, could double the prison time he already is serving after a jury found him guilty Wednesday of assaulting his girlfriend in their Boardman home in June 2022.
A jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found James guilty of felonious assault and domestic violence. Judge Maureen Sweeney also found James guilty of having weapons while not allowed in the same incident.
James agreed to letting the judge decide James' guilt or innocence on that charge instead of the jury. James could get up to about 11 more years in prison on the felonious assault and weapons charges when he is sentenced later.
He already is serving an eight-year prison sentence that Sweeney imposed in March after another jury found him 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 James attempted to stab an ambulance worker with a hypodermic syringe and assaulted a second ambulance worker and a police officer.
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. It pertained to a Lane LifeTrans paramedic who injected James with the opiate reversal drug naloxone in the back of an ambulance on South Avenue in Boardman.
Before jury selection began Tuesday, Sweeney went on the record with James and the attorneys for the prosecution and defense to document that James was offered a plea agreement in the case involving his girlfriend. If he would have pleaded guilty, prosecutors were willing to recommend a prison sentence of two to three years, but James rejected the offer and went to trial.
The incident that led to this week's trial happened June 19, 2022, at James' home on Shields Road. Daniel Yozwiak, assistant prosecutor, 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."
Lavelle said the woman was going to testify James "got up, was angry, turned over a table. After that, she's not quite sure what occurred. She will fill in some blanks in the course of her testimony. She was injured. She's not quite sure how."
Lavelle said James' girlfriend was taken to the hospital, but never indicated to medical personnel that James had caused her injuries "until a significant amount of time passed."