Staff photos / Ed Runyan Saun Peterson talks briefly with his attorney, Jim Wise, after Peterson was sentenced to 20 1/2 to 26 1/2 years in prison for his role in the April 15, 2023, shooting death of 15-year-old Amya Monserrat outside of Martha’s Boulevard Tavern in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito sentenced Saun Peterson to 20 1/2 to 26 1/2 years in prison Wednesday for Peterson’s role in the April 15, 2023, shooting death of 15-year-old Amya Monserrat outside of Martha’s Boulevard Tavern.

It was a maximum sentence for the charges Peterson pleaded guilty to in 2023 — involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle and obstructing justice.

Before he could sentence Peterson, 23, however, D’Apolito heard oral arguments from Peterson’s attorney, Jim Wise, and Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor John Juhasz and allowed prosecutors to recommend a higher sentence for Peterson.

He allowed it because Peterson breached the terms of his 2023 plea agreement by failing to testify fully in the February trial of Peterson’s co-defendant, Danyo Sellers, 19, who was acquitted of his charges.

The hearing before the sentencing boiled down to Peterson asking to be able to escape the plea agreement he reached in 2023 that called for Peterson to get 10 to 12 1/2 years in prison in exchange for him testifying against Sellers.

Prosecutors opposed the idea, asking D’Apolito instead to allow them to simply ask for a higher prison sentence than the one that was part of the plea agreement because of Sellers failing to live up to the requirement to testify fully.

After hearing the arguments by both sides, D’Apolito refused to allow Peterson to withdraw his plea and allowed prosecutors to argue for a higher sentence. He went through a long list of factors he had to consider, saying Peterson entered into a knowing and voluntary plea agreement and that Peterson got good legal representation when he reached his plea.

But one of the biggest factors in those decisions was what is called “prejudice” to the state’s case, meaning whether granting Peterson’s requests would be unfair to the prosecution.

D’Apolito stated that he could scarcely think of a scenario that would be more unfair to the state — that Peterson would reach a plea requiring testimony, then not testify fully and truthfully, “take my chances to see if my codefendant was found not guilty. If so, he’s out as a witness. And who does the state have left? At this point, I’m sure Mr. Sellers (will) not come back and testify.”

As a result, prosecutors “were greatly hamstrung” in their prosecutions, he said. Peterson gave a sworn statement two years before Sellers went on trial and “let the state rely on that.” And then a jury found Sellers not guilty. “You left them holding the bag, if you will,” D’Apolito said. It was “quite unfair to the State of Ohio.”

D’Apolito rejected the defense suggestion that Peterson was pressured to accept the plea agreement in 2023, and he rejected the idea that Peterson has a defense to the charges.

Peterson made a sworn statement that he was the driver of the car that circled the tavern that night. “He puts himself in the vehicle,” D’Apolito said. “He went on to say that Mr. Sellers was the shooter,” D’Apolito said. Peterson’s request would “strike justice twice,” denying justice to the family and the jury who heard the Sellers case, D’Apolito said.

After the jury found Sellers not guilty, they were told Peterson had given a sworn statement indicating that Sellers was the shooter. They said knowing that “absolutely” might have affected their verdict, D’Apolito said.

VICTIM’S MOM

In a victim-impact statement, Amya’s mother, Jaismin Morris, expressed her frustration over the “foolery” of Peterson backing out of the plea agreement that called for him to testify against Sellers.

“I want closure, and I’ll never get that,” she said. “He’ll never get my forgiveness, because he is still, up until today, in my opinion, playing with the system like it’s a game,” she said of Peterson. She said she will continue to “give back to the community. I am OK with giving every kid I see who is lacking love because these kids need love, they need guidance.”

She noted that Wednesday was her daughter’s “death day,” exactly three years after she died, and that her daughter was “so loved. She has an army behind her, and she is guiding me.” She added, “My daughter was just trying to have fun, and it was so calculated, everything that was done was so calculated.”

When Amya was killed, she was running to her mother’s car with a friend. Amya fell into her mother’s car and was almost immediately unresponsive from the devastating gunshot wound. Her mother was in the driver’s seat.

Morris said, “I would have never thought I would lose the most important person in my life and to have to witness it and have to testify — twice — and then this. My life has always been so challenging, and sometimes I don’t understand why I have to go through all of these difficult challenges.” She cried through parts of her remarks.

When the hearing moved into the sentencing phase, Peterson did not offer any remarks when it was his turn to speak.

JUDGE

D’Apolito said it’s true that Peterson was the driver in the case, not the shooter. But that is the reason Ohio law has a criminal charge called “felony murder.” He said it is there to punish a person who engages “in very dangerous and reckless behavior. You can’t act surprised when the worst and almost incalculable thing happens and someone dies. You have to be held accountable.”

D’Apolito said Peterson “subverted justice” by backing out of his plea agreement. If he would have testified to his role in Amya’s death to “try to make that right,” D’Apolito would have followed the original plea agreement, D’Apolito said.

D’Apolito said he hopes adding more prison time to Peterson’s sentence deters at least one person from going for a ride in a car “with their friend with a gun and drive by a home or drive by a party two or three or four or five times. If I could just stop that, it might stop someone else from being senselessly killed.”

He gave Peterson credit for 1,071 days toward his prison sentence for the time Peterson spent in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.

PROSECUTOR

After the sentencing, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro said she considered Peterson’s plea and promise to testify and then backing out a “very calculated plan by this defendant to” thwart justice.

She said it’s frustrating that more than 30 people were in the tavern parking lot at the time Amya was fatally shot, and not one came forward to testify. She hopes that trend will be reversed because juries believe witnesses and are “leery about cooperation from co-defendants. So I would encourage the community to come forward.”

Maro said the two assistant prosecutors who worked on the Sellers case worked “day and night preparing that case for trial. They did their best. Nobody could have anticipated that (Peterson) was going to take the stand and gut the entire case.”

She said the two assistant prosecutors did an “excellent job,” and “frustration doesn’t even begin to explain that disappointment.”

Juhasz said during Wednesday’s hearing that on the night before Peterson refused to fully testify in the Sellers case, he told someone during a jail call that he would “rather do 20 (years) not as a snitch than do 10 as a snitch.”