Staff photos / Ed Runyan
Michael F. Cobb, 68, right, is seen at his plea hearing Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court with his attorney, J.P. Laczko, left, and Assistant Prosecutor Mike Rich in back. Cobb pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the stabbing of a man May 8 at an East Side Youngstown apartment complex.

YOUNGSTOWN –The attorney for Michael F. Cobb, 68, told Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum on Tuesday that because Cobb was considerably older than a man Cobb had been in a dispute with at their East Side apartment complex, Cobb had “some fear of this person because of prior altercations.”

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Rich said Cobb stabbed the other man as part of an ongoing dispute among the two neighbors. He said the victim had “some type of speaker attached to a lanyard,” and the victim was swinging it.

Cobb was indicted on a felonious assault charge, which could have resulted in eight years in prison if convicted. But a plea agreement Tuesday allowed Cobb to plead guilty to the lesser offense of aggravated assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.

Cobb’s attorney, J.P. Laczko, described the victim in the May 8 stabbing as being in his “mid-twenties.” It happened at the ESA apartments on Kendis Circle.

Police arrived to find the younger man bleeding profusely from his arm inside an apartment. He told police the person who did it was his nearby neighbor. A Youngstown police officer was posted outside of Cobb’s apartment. After the victim had been removed by ambulance personnel, officers ordered Cobb at gunpoint to come out with his hands up.

Cobb had a scratch and raised contusion on his head. Cobb said the other man hit him first with a speaker. Cobb gave police permission to retrieve the knife he used on a table in his apartment, according to a Youngstown police report.

The report states that police officers noted they had been called to the apartment for Cobb’s dog being loud and aggressive with the most recent time being April 28.

A witness told police they saw the entire incident. The victim and his wife were walking when Cobb made remarks to the victim’s wife, the witness said.

The victim said to stop, but Cobb started swinging a knife at the victim. The victim tried to block the knife with an object on a strap, but the victim was stabbed.

Rich said prosecutors will recommend at sentencing that Cobb get an unspecified amount of prison time. The victim never returned calls from Rich, so Rich has not had any contact with the victim about the case, he said.

Cobb will be sentenced at 11 a.m. Sept. 24, after Community Corrections Association of Youngstown carries out a presentence investigation of Cobb’s criminal history and background. Cobb has been in the Mahoning County jail since May 8.