YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A Beaver Township man accused of beating another man during a fireworks show was sentenced Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to at least three years in prison.
Robert Walp, 21, was sentenced to three to four and a half years in prison by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum after he pleaded guilty to a charge of felonious assault.
The plea came after a competency evaluation found Walp competent to stand trial in the case.
Several other charges Walp has picked up in the Mahoning County jail for assaulting corrections officers while he was awaiting the outcome of his case are still pending.
Walp has been in the jail since July 9, when he was booked in by Beaver Township police following a fight over fireworks at the Maplecroft Trailer Park.
A man who was beaten severely in the face told police that he had confronted a group of people who were lighting off fireworks, and one of the men threatened to burn down his home, said, “You don’t know the people I do,” then punched the man in the face.
After the man fell to the ground, the suspect kept kicking him, reports said.
The suspect, later identified as Walp, told police that he acted in self-defense, reports said.
A Mahoning County grand jury indicted Walp earlier in August on a charge of felonious assault. At the time he was arraigned in Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield, he was given a $5,000 bond, which he was not able to post.
A court spokesman said the sentence was agreed upon by the attorneys and upheld by Judge Krichbaum. The victim in the case approved of the sentence, the court spokesman said.
