YOUNGSTOWN — Whittington R. Davis, 38, North Feederle Drive SE, Warren, was sentenced to the defense and prosecution recommended four to six years in prison Tuesday for seriously injuring a woman July 2, 2024, downtown.

His attorney, Nick Brevetta, told Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito during the hearing that Davis was planning to appeal whatever sentence he received Tuesday because of the ruling D’Apolito made refusing to allow Davis to withdraw his guilty plea in June.

Davis pleaded guilty in April to charges of felonious assault and misdemeanor obstructing official business.

VICTIM’S ACCOUNT

The victim said in April that she was walking on West Federal Street near the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services building downtown July 2 with a friend when she saw a man about 80 years old experiencing a medical issue and stopped to help him.

She said she helped the man sit down on the edge of a planter to keep him from falling, then called the man’s son, who said he would come to the location. About that time, Davis, who was intoxicated, approached, and Davis tried to strike her male friend in the head, but only “clipped” her friend, she said.

The victim, Christine Smith, who said she had worked as a security guard for 38 years, told Davis to leave. She said Davis pushed her hand and she fell backward, injuring her wrist, which required a metal plate and eight pins to reconstruct.

She has limited mobility now in that wrist and she can no longer work as a security guard. She also can no longer work as a state-tested nursing assistant because of the physical demands of that job, she said.

“It’s been a long process and I’m in pain a lot,” she said, adding that she has lost some of the feeling in her wrist.

Smith noted that the aftermath of her assault was reported on television. One news account was that officers chased a man from downtown about 8 p.m. July 2, 2024.

The report stated that Davis jumped off the Spring Common Bridge near the main Youngstown fire station downtown and was injured when he hit the ground. Davis was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Davis appeared for his hearing in April and again Tuesday in a wheelchair, apparently as a result of the injuries he suffered in the jump.

Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Katherine Jones told D’Apolito that she had conversations with the victim at the time of the plea and she approved of the recommended sentence, but she was not in attendance Tuesday.

Brevetta told D’Apolito that he thinks Davis’ addiction issues were a factor in the assault. And he argued that the victim’s injuries were not “caused directly by my client’s contact with her. That was caused directly by her contact with the ground.”

He suggested that Davis was not trying to cause serious harm and a lesser sentence would be adequate.

PROSECUTOR ACCOUNT

Jones described the incident, saying that the victim got between Davis and the man she was trying to help during a verbal altercation. Then Davis “shoved the victim. She fell to the sidewalk, ultimately injuring her wrist. I believe it was 11 different places that she had fractured, requiring surgery.”

She said law enforcement found Davis at the WRTA bus station downtown and was speaking with him when he “took off on foot and jumped off of the Peanut Bridge.”

Brevetta told the judge that the video shows the two men “face to face,” and the woman “interjects herself between the two of them.” Davis did not like the way Brevetta was describing the events and interrupted.

Eventually D’Apolito asked Jones if there was a copy of the surveillance video showing the event. Jones handed it to him, and he watched it on his computer in his office. When the hearing resumed, he allowed Davis to talk.

But afterwards, D’Apolito told Davis the video made it clear that Davis was “the instigator” and “kept going back,” adding that Davis “threw her to the ground.”