Man sentenced in fatal Boardman shooting
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A man who pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of voluntary manslaughter for a January shooting death in Boardman was sentenced to 8 to 10 and a half years in prison in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Jerome Tubbs, 24, of Youngstown, received the sentence from Judge Maureen Sweeney for the first-degree felony conviction.
The sentence was recommended by the attorneys in the case in exchange for Tubbs' plea and upheld by Judge Sweeney.
Included in the sentence is a three-year sentence for a firearm specification.
Tubbs was originally charged with murder for the Jan. 6 shooting death of Michael Kosarich , 30. Kosarich was found in his car in a Market Street parking lot unresponsive from a gunshot wound. He later died at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
Tubbs was arrested in February after police appealed to the public for help several times.
Defense attorney Aaron Meikle said he was ready to take the case to trial because he said Tubbs had a good self-defense claim. Kosarich was shot after the two had a confrontation during a road rage incident. Meikle said Tubbs was punched by Kosarich and Kosarich drove off.
Tubbs followed Kosarich to the parking lot and when Kosarich got out of his car, Tubbs thought he had a gun and shot him, Meikle said.
"He made one wrong decision and it compounded very quickly," Meikle said.
Angela Newman, Kosarich's sister, said her brother did not deserve to die.
"This is obviously the worst pain I have ever felt in my life," she said. "My family is missing an essential piece of our puzzle. My world is broken."
Newman said Tubbs did not have to follow her brother and could have made other choices.
"It was senseless, all of it," Newman said. "He [Tubbs] had so many other options. I will never be able to comprehend what the defendant did."
Tubbs apologized, saying, "...that night, I was in fear of my own life."
Tubbs will get credit for 243 days he has spent in the county jail awaiting the outcome of his case.
