Staff photo / Ed Runyan Stephen Zitello was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to attempted felonious assault in an Aug. 13, 2024, incident in which he punched a man in the eye at a home on the West Side, causing an injury.

YOUNGSTOWN — Stephen M. Zitello, 34, of Youngstown was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty earlier to attempted felonious assault in an Aug. 13, 2024, incident in which he punched a man in the eye at a West Side home and caused an injury.

Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court handed down the sentence.

A Youngstown police report states the victim was at Zitello’s home about 1 p.m. and was in the process of buying trading cards from Zitello and realized that some of them were not real and refused the trade, giving them back.

Zitello got “very upset” and accused the victim of stealing money from him and switching the trading cards, the report states.

The victim said he retreated to his motor vehicle when Zitello punched him from behind with a closed fist in the victim’s left eye, breaking the victim’s eye glasses and dropping the victim to the ground. The victim drove to the hospital, where he was advised that he had a traumatic hyphema that would require him to see a specialist.

The victim left the hospital to make a police report. The officer who spoke to the victim saw he had damage to his eye. Photos of the injury were taken.

Traumatic hyphema is the entry of blood into the anterior chamber (the space between the cornea and iris) because of a “blow or a projectile striking the eye,” according to the National Institutes of Health. “It can cause permanent loss of vision or otherwise affect vision.”

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Mark Carfolo told Sweeney that the victim of the assault had asked that Zitello get treatment “for various issues he may be dealing with.”

Defense attorney Lou DeFabio asked that Zitello be released from the county jail and get treatment, in part because that is what the victim asked for at the time of the plea. He sought a nonprison sentence.

DeFabio noted that Zitello’s conviction is a third-degree felony and involved a “single punch” that could have been a “simple assault” if not for the damage to the victim’s eye.

DeFabio said Zitello had “substance abuse issues” at the time of the offense.

Zitello spoke, apologizing for what he did, saying the victim “still is my uncle. I’ve known him since I was a kid.” He said this incident “is all from, like everybody said, all the drugs and stuff. We were all partying during this time, all making stupid decisions. We all had stupid parts to play in this.”

Zitello got credit for 139 days already served in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.