Staff photo / Ed Runyan Brandon Crump and his attorney, Lou DeFabio, attend a hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Thursday.

YOUNGSTOWN — The last thing stopping Brandon Crump Jr. from being shipped out of the Mahoning County jail to start serving his 52-years-to-life prison sentence took place Thursday afternoon in front of a handful of people.

Crump, 21, pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to escape and robbery — offenses he committed Nov. 15, 2020, while detained in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center. At the time he was 17 and charged with aggravated robbery in connection to the killing of 4-year-old Rowan Sweeney, but he was not charged with killing Rowan or shooting anyone.

Only later was Crump indicted on aggravated murder in Rowan’s death and other charges related to the Sept. 21, 2020, killing, robbery and shootings of adults in a home on Perry Street in Struthers.

Much later, he was deemed to be the killer of Rowan and also the shooter of the adults. The aggravated robbery was related to the theft at the home on Perry Street, but officials were not willing back in 2020 to describe what role Crump played.

Crump was sentenced July 29 to 52 years to life in prison, the last of the three men charged in the case. Crump’s hearing Thursday was classified as a “status conference,” which usually means it is just a meeting among attorneys. But this time, they brought Crump in and finished the case.

Rowan’s family has attended most of the hearings in the murder case, but they and the victims from JJC “all elected not to be present today,” said Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Bonish. Only one reporter was there, aside from court personnel, deputies and two attorneys.

The escape and robbery were second-degree felonies, and Crump pleaded guilty to both charges. Judge Anthony D’Apolito sentenced Crump to the maximum — eight years in prison on each offense — but he ordered them served at the same time as the 52 years to life for the murder and shootings.

Officials deemed it beneficial to separate the escape and robbery charges from the murder and shootings charges for purposes of Crump’s trial.

The Nov. 15, 2020, escape involved Crump, then 17, and two other teens overtaking a juvenile justice center guard, running to an outdoor courtyard and scaling a fence.

Bonish told Judge D’Apolito Thursday that Crump “teamed up with two other students that were there. They accosted one of the guards. They jumped him. One of the offenders got a hold of his radio. (Crump) actually punched him in the face. They were able to struggle for and obtain his keys, and they made it all of the way out of the facility, all of the way out to the fence.”

She said another officer “spotted Mr. Crump while he was still on the fence — a chain link fence with barbed wire. He was climbing the fence. That group leader ordered Mr. Crump off of the fence, and at that time Mr. Crump did comply, and he was physically brought back into JJC without any further incident,” she said.

The two other teens were recovered in the weeks that followed. The incident happened only a couple of weeks after Crump was arrested in the Struthers case.

Bonish recommended that Crump get the maximum sentence for the offenses, but because of the “magnitude of the sentence” Crump already got in the murder case, she believed that the 16 years should be served at the same time as the Struthers case.

She clarified that the robbery offense involved the physical assault of the guard and the taking of the radio and keys.

Crump’s attorney, Lou DeFabio, noted the judge is familiar with the facility because of Judge D’Apolito having served as court administrator there before he became judge.

“He never made it out of the compound,” DeFabio said. “There was no serious physical injury.” No gun was taken. “At the time, Mr. Crump was only charged with aggravated robbery,” DeFabio said.

He said consideration should be given to Crump’s age at the time, and he added, “I don’t think any of the other offenders got 16 years for this.”

Before announcing the sentence, the judge noted that “It would have been terrifying as the administrator, as a person who worked there to have someone escape. That is one of the worst things that can happen.”

But compared to Crump’s aggravated murder conviction in Rowan’s death, attempted murder in the shootings of the four adults and other charges, the escape and robbery are “not as significant as everything else was.”

Crump gets credit for the nearly four years he has been locked up in juvenile detention and the Mahoning County jail in the Struthers case. DeFabio said he would file appeals on Crump’s behalf in the Struthers and juvenile detention cases.

When the hearing was over, DeFabio turned to Crump and shook hands with him as he said, “All right, kid. Good luck.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Ed Runyan by email at erunyan@vindy.com. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @TribToday.