Staff photo / Ed Runyan Brandon Crespo, 28, spoke with his attorney, Mike Yacovone, after Crespo’s sentencing hearing ended Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Brandon Crespo, 28, has stood before a judge many times as a result of his habit of breaking into businesses. He said Thursday that the 10 counts of breaking and entering he pleaded guilty to in December were the result of his drug addiction.

He asked for probation, drug treatment and counseling “to get the help I need.”

His convictions were for breaking into businesses in the Boardman-Youngstown area between May 15 and June 2, according to his indictments.

“I know that I deserve to go to prison for the things I did. I didn’t do it just to do it. It was my addiction that took me to doing stuff that I didn’t want to do,” he said.

He presumably understood that Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court knew that he had a long record of previous breaking and entering convictions but still tried to persuade Durkin this time it would be different.

“I’m going to stay clean and complete the program that is given to me. I promise to God. I talk to God most days. And thank you, Your Honor.”

Breaking and entering is a low-level felony. Such offenses generally get probation, not prison. But judges are to take into account a person’s criminal record and other factors in deciding what sentence to give.

Durkin started by saying he had reviewed the presentence investigation that was carried out on Crespo in this case that would have showed Crespo’s previous criminal history and background.

“I understand a lot, Mr. Crespo, about substance-abuse disorder. Judges, of course, are faced with this disease and the people who have it every single day.” Durkin has been lauded for creating the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court drug court, one of the first ones in the state, in 1997.

Durkin said he has “afforded a lot of people a lot of opportunities for almost 30 years. Your history goes back to juvenile. And it always seems like the same thing, it’s (breaking and entering). There was a burglary. But more often than not … it’s nonviolent. It’s businesses. It’s not homes.”

Then Durkin mentioned that Crespo was in Durkin’s drug court program in 2018, the year of Crespo’s first felony conviction in Mahoning County.

Crespo then interrupted the judge with a remark about asking for a “second chance.”

“You know, I am just going to be very blunt,” Durkin said. “It’s incredibly easy to stand here now and say you’re done with it (drugs).”

Again Crespo interrupted: “No. I’m done. Serious.”

The judge said, “I’m taking a look at the presentence investigation. And what I see in the presentence investigation candidly is that the opportunity you had in drug court” was that Crespo went into an alternative sentencing program at the Community Corrections Association, “you were there for a minute” and walked away.

He was readmitted, then was admitted into a local treatment facility, “left after two days and did not follow through with recommendations,” Durkin said. Crespo said he left because there was “drug use there.”

But Durkin said, “You know what, Mr. Crespo? You’re going to find it everywhere. It’s about a personal choice. It’s about a decision. It comes down to walking the walk or talking the talk.”

Durkin terminated Crespo from drug court after Crespo committed multiple violations.

From there, Durkin moved directly to the sentence, giving Crespo the three years in prison that was jointly recommended by the prosecution and defense with Crespo getting credit for the time he has been in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial. He was booked into the jail June 9, 2025.