YOUNGSTOWN — A May 29 hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court could result in a Struthers man getting a much more serious punishment than he has gotten so far for a burglary that resulted in a high-level-felony conviction.

Judge John Durkin sentenced Louis Lebron, 19, in January to 30 days in the Mahoning County jail and three years of probation for a July 2024 incident in which Lebron and another man broke into an apartment on Crandall Avenue on the North Side, “kicked the bathroom door open,” but never had a chance to do anything else before Youngstown police arrested him and the other man.

At the time of sentencing, Durkin told Lebron that Lebron was making bad decisions about the people he associated with and was very close to going to prison and was lucky that the assistant prosecutor in the case was “asking for you to get probation. I think it is primarily because you are 19 years old.”

But while Lebron was participating in an in-house treatment program through the Community Corrections Association of Youngstown on April 20, he violated the terms of his probation by escaping and running away from CCA, a Mahoning County Adult Probation report states.

The report states another resident of the program tried to forcefully open the rear emergency door of the facility and asked “Are you ready, boys?” The staff tried to stop the behavior but the male persisted in trying to leave, and he eventually succeeded, the report states. Lebron followed him out the door, and the director directed staff to shut down the facility. Lebron was arrested several days later.

The probation department alleges that Lebron violated the terms of his probation, and Lebron’s attorney stipulated Tuesday that Lebron did violate his probation. On May 29, Durkin will decide what Lebron’s punishment will be. Lebron could get a prison sentence this time.

During Lebron’s sentencing in January, Assistant Prosecutor Steve Maszczak noted that there were factors working against Lebron getting a light punishment the last time — he has a juvenile record and violated the terms of his bond while awaiting sentencing in the case by being charged with misdemeanor offenses of criminal trespass Dec. 10 and resisting arrest Dec. 30 in Youngstown.

“There is this continued connection with law enforcement, which is troubling to say the least,” Maszczak said in January. “He’s 19 years old, and this is a tough start in his adult life.”.

Durkin said in January he thinks Maszczak recommended probation instead of prison because Lebron was so young and had a rough childhood. Lebron is in the Mahoning County jail.

A Youngstown police report stated that when police arrived at the apartment, they saw a door to the apartment building open and saw two men leave the building and run south through the backyard. Then officers saw Lebron and a co-defendant running toward officers. One of them ran back up the stairs, but both were arrested.

Officers then spoke to a person who said when the witness saw the men running in the hallway of the apartment, he locked himself in his bathroom.

At the hearing in January, Durkin told Lebron that it appeared that “the people you are running around with are taking you on a direct path to prison. I don’t know if you appreciate how close you are today, right now, to going to prison.”