YOUNGSTOWN — When Anthony J. Defrance Jr., 24, stood before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday, he was better prepared to speak about why he should be released from prison after serving about 18 months of his 3 to 4.5 year prison sentence for felonious assault.

He appeared before the judge one week ago and spoke, but his words did not suggest to Krichbaum that he had learned a lesson or felt remorse for assaulting a man at a Boardman gas station in 2022, resulting in the victim suffering a fractured wrist and falling unconscious.

It was apparent a week ago from the judge’s demeanor and the words he used that Defrance did not seem to understand the message he was supposed to have learned from the experience. Defrance talked about the things he wanted to do with his life outside of prison, but the judge noted that Defrance didn’t “say squat about this victim. No apology, no ‘I hope he’s doing well.'”

Krichbaum spoke a while about the case, apparently trying to decide what to do with Defrance. Then he said he was going to postpone the matter for a week.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Defrance spoke again, this time with notes, apologizing for “last week’s speech,” adding “I am not really great at giving speeches, but I would love to apologize to my victim for my actions the night that everything happened. I was very angry at what he had said. I was very, very wrong for what I did.

“That night I was not in the right mindframe. I made the decision to put my hands on my victim. I would love to go back to that night and just talk to him and try to make things go right,” he said. “I wish I would have walked away.”

Defrance said he took anger management classes in prison, and “I learned from those classes you don’t always have to be violent. You can talk things out or turn your back and walk off,” he said. Later, he thanked the judge for “giving me another shot to speak again, Your Honor.” And he talked about his goals for once he gets out of prison.

The judge responded by asking if Defrance “wrote that out,” and Defrance said he did.

“Yeah, you should keep that and put it in your pocket or your wallet,” the judge said. “Whenever something comes up, like what came up in this case, you could get it out and read it and these are my goals and not let punching this guy in the face get in the way of these goals that I’ve set for myself.”

“Yes, sir,” Defrance replied to that and every other question the judge asked after that. The judge mentioned that this might be the first time he ever “decided to take a step back and (took) a week to think about this.”

The judge called Defrance’s conduct at the gas station “completely unnecessary, it was criminal, it was vicious, over the top, and that is why I sent you to the penitentiary as a last resort.”

Then the judge told Defrance he thinks the 18 months he served is sufficient. “It sounds like you have properly evaluated what you did wrong and what you need to do to get yourself properly restrained, properly cognizant of situations to stay out of.”

He approved Defrance’s request for early release but ordered him to a six-month residential, lockdown treatment program at the Community Corrections Association of Youngstown.

According to Boardman police, the assault took place at the Get Go on Boardman-Poland Road late Sept. 3, 2022.

A witness told police he saw Defrance’s vehicle back into a parking space next to another car near the front of the store. The victim walked to the front of his car to check the distance between his car and Defrance’s car, and Defrance started to yell at the victim, saying the distance was fine.

Defrance then got out of his car and yelled profanities at the victim, then punched him several times, police said. The witness said Defrance also chased the victim and knocked him to the ground and punched him additional times. A woman with Defrance tried to get Defrance to stop punching the victim, the report states. Defrance left the scene after the victim fell unconscious.

Police located Defrance later during a traffic stop. The officer saw that Defrance had blood on his knuckles. Defrance told the officer the victim yelled at Defrance after he backed up, saying Defrance nearly struck the victim’s vehicle, but Defrance told him the victim “came at him aggressively and kept getting in his face.”

The victim told police he was eating in his car and asked Defrance to move his vehicle, causing Defrance to start yelling. The victim said at one point he put his forearm up, and Defrance punched him a couple of times in the face and slammed him onto the ground. He said that is when he blacked out.

Doctors confirmed the victim’s arm was broken. The officer observed blood on the victim’s eye, cheek, nose and mouth with bruising around his eye.

The victim did not respond to calls from the prosecutor’s office to inform him of the sentencing hearing and his right to speak, and the victim did not come to the hearing last week or Tuesday.

Mike Rich, assistant prosecutor, said during Defrance’s sentencing hearing in February 2023 and again Tuesday that the prosecutor’s office would “stand silent” on whether Defrance should be released early when he became eligible.

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