YOUNGSTOWN — A jury found Gregory Mahone, 23, guilty of two felony charges and four misdemeanors Tuesday in a September 2024 case in Boardman in which he threatened police officers.

The charges were intimidation and retaliation, both third-degree felonies, each punishable by up to three years in prison. Mahone was taken into custody after Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio read the verdicts. He could get up to six years in prison on the felonies when he is sentenced later.

The trial began Monday with jury selection and witnesses and ended early Tuesday with closing arguments by the prosecution and defense, and jury deliberations.

In closing arguments, Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Hilles told jurors that Mahone was in an argument with the mother of his child Sept. 21, 2024, that caused the woman and her baby to suffer injuries.

A Boardman police report states that officers went to an apartment complex in the 500 block of Boardman Canfield Road because of a 911 hang-up call, apparently from the victim.

The first officer to arrive saw Mahone following and yelling at the woman. The officer also saw a witness standing near the woman and Mahone as Mahone tried to take the child from the woman, the report states.

The officer told Mahone to come toward the officer so he could talk to Mahone, but Mahone refused, the report states. Mahone told the officer he “did not have to talk to me,” and Mahone ran through the apartment complex. He was eventually arrested.

The woman told police she and Mahone had gone to a park in Youngstown so that Mahone could spend time with his child. On the car ride afterwards, they argued. The woman said Mahone hit her in the face. Then as he drove south on Glenwood Avenue, he hit her in the face and pulled her hair, nearly hitting their child. So she hit Mahone “in defense of their child,” she said.

They reached the apartment complex and got out. Officers arrived a short time after that.

Hilles told jurors that Mahone “hit (the victim) multiple times, pulled her, pushed her and slapped her.” The victim was holding their child at the time, and a Boardman officer “saw a fresh scratch on the baby’s face.”

Hilles said that when the first officer arrived at the apartment complex, he saw “a woman holding her baby, crying, backing away while the defendant aggressively followed her and tried to grab her,” Hilles said.

“The officer tries to detain the defendant to protect her and the child. What does the defendant do? He runs. He refuses commands. He forces the officer to chase him through the apartment complex. And when the officer finally gets him to stop, he still refuses those lawful orders.” Hilles said eventually three officers took Mahone to the ground.

After Mahone was in custody, he continued yelling at his child’s mother and yelled at officers, saying “If they weren’t in uniform, he would beat their (deleted),” Hilles said.

Mahone made a similar remark to the witness, Hiles said. “Those threats matter. The law is clear. Threatening a public servant while they are performing their duties, threatening them because they intervene, is intimidation,” Hilles said.

“He meant what he said. You heard the tone, the anger, the rage. The words were clear. The threats were deliberate, and they were directed at the officers acting in the line of duty.”

In his closing argument, Mahone’s attorney, Mark Lavelle, told jurors that despite Hilles’ contention that Mahone acted violently, “You never saw this defendant in the video strike anyone.” Lavelle said Hilles said that the jurors “got to see the injuries” on the woman. “I did not,” Lavelle said. “Admittedly she was a little red-faced. But as far as scratches and bruises (Hilles) discussed, they’re not there.”

Lavelle challenged the notion that Mahone was required to obey the officer’s command to “come over and talk to me.” Lavelle said Mahone “said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t have to talk to you.'” And the officer said “‘Yes you do.'”

Lavelle said, “We don’t have to talk to the police. Why they think we do escapes me,” Lavelle said. “It’s a pleasure. It’s a treat for me as a defense attorney to come in and question a police officer who thinks otherwise, to school that officer on our rights.”

Lavelle said the key to understanding intimidation and retaliation is “intent.” He said, “In order for the prosecutor to secure a conviction, they have to make you believe Gregory Mahone understood that his threats against … any of the Boardman police officers would actually constitute an attempt to influence, intimidate or hinder the officers in the performance of their duties.”

Lavelle said the better understanding of what Mahone was doing was “venting his frustrations and rage at having been arrested under circumstances in which … he considered himself to have been the victim of his girlfriend’s conduct.”