YOUNGSTOWN — Just seven weeks after Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney sentenced Damian Cessna, 28, to four to six years in prison for charging at a Boardman police officer while holding a knife on July 13, 2021, his attorney asked Sweeney to allow Cessna to leave prison on judicial release, which is a type of early release.

Attorney Mark Lavelle filed the motion, saying Cessna, of Boardman, is eligible for judicial release after being delivered into the prison system July 29. He spent about a year in the county jail awaiting trial.

The filing states that a sanction other than prison would adequately punish Cessna and protect the public from future criminal violations because “the applicable factors” of Cessna not reoffending were greater than the likelihood of him reoffending.

Lavelle argued that Cessna is “not a threat to society” and he is “in need of treatment not available in prison.” Lavelle asked Sweeney to schedule a hearing, which she did. The hearing will be 10 a.m. Oct. 16.

Mahoning County prosecutors filed a memorandum stating they do not object to Cessna being released. At the time of sentencing, prosecutors asked Sweeney to give Cessna one year in prison with credit for a year spent in the county jail.

THE CONFRONTATION

The confrontation that led to Cessna’s conviction began with Boardman police officer Evan Beil seeing Cessna on South Avenue at Mathews Road about 12:30 a.m. July 31, 2021, with no lights on his bicycle and riding in the wrong lane while holding a baseball bat. Beil would later learn Cessna was armed with knives, including a large one.

Beil testified at Cessna’s two trials that he made a traffic stop on Cessna, whom he did not know, to warn him that his actions on the bicycle were dangerous. Beil said he first asked Cessna to put down the baseball bat, which Cessna did.

But when Beil asked Cessna to take a long knife from its sheath on his belt and toss it away, Cessna said, “I will not disarm myself. I do not feel safe talking to you,” Beil testified.

Beil told Cessna to get rid of the knife or Cessna would be arrested, Beil testified. “And then I draw my firearm, order him to the ground,” Beil said. “At that point, he pulls the knife out of its sheath. He makes a grunting noise and charges at me,” Beil testified.

Beil said Cessna held the knife about head level with his elbow bent as he came toward Beil. Cessna said he fired until Cessna collapsed forward onto the ground. Beil fired about five times, then paused, then fired about six more times until Cessna fell, Beil said.

MENTAL HEALTH

Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said at Cessna’s sentencing hearing that the presentence investigation into Cessna’s criminal history and background indicated Cessna is a low risk to reoffend. She noted that prosecutors had offered Cessna a recommendation of one year in prison if he would have entered a guilty plea prior to trial.

Maro said prior to sentencing she thought that since prosecutors thought one year in prison was a just sentence when it was offered to Cessna in plea negotiations, it should still be a just sentence.

Maro said the “record is replete” with references to Cessna’s “detailed mental-health history,” which is why her office asked Sweeney recently for a new mental-health assessment just before the sentencing hearing. The assessment was done.

“Mr. Cessna has multiple diagnoses,” Maro said.

She urged Sweeney to give Cessna a sentence that included “some type of intensive supervision of Mr. Cessna to make sure he is complying with medication and getting the mental health treatment he needs.”

BEIL REMARKS

Beil made remarks before sentencing. He did not ask for any specific sentence for Cessna. He said that on the day of the incident, Cessna “armed himself with his favorite knife, armed himself with a baseball bat, armed himself with his gloves with the steel knuckles, and armed himself with two additional knives.”

He said Cessna was on his way “to his friend’s house, a romantic rival, to confront him about stealing his girlfriend.” Beil did not know any of that at the time, he noted. “I interrupted Mr. Cessna’s mission that night, and it immediately escalated to an act of violence, not an act of violence by me, an act of violence by Mr. Cessna.”

Beil said he understands that Cessna has mental health issues, but the evidence indicates that Cessna “has been noncompliant with his medication, his mental-health treatment.”