James Goins, at the age of 16, participated in two violent in-home robberies with his best friend Chad Barnette, who was also 16 in Youngstown, Ohio. On January 29th, 2001 the two boys attacked William Sovak, who at the time was 84, by pushing Sovak back into his own home while he was trying to pick up the newspaper. The two boys assaulted him by kicking him and hitting him repeatedly, and knocking him to the ground multiple times. They hit him on the head with his telephone and the two boys pushed Sovak down the stairs, where he lost consciousness, and dragged him into a storage room locking the door so he could not escape. Sovak was discovered later that evening when a neighbor reported seeing blood all over Sovak’s house. Sovak survived, however he had a punctured lung, broken ribs along with other broken bones. On the same day, January 29th 2001, Goins and Barnette participated in another in-home robbery in the same neighborhood. The two residents, Louis Luchisan (wheelchair-bound) and his wife Elizabeth were the victims. The two boys demanded money and threatened to kill them if they wouldn’t agree. Mrs. Luchisan reported that one of the two boys was carrying a firearm. Mr. Luchisan was hit on the head with a plate, and Mrs. Luchisan with a telephone. The two boys were able to obtain $187, a 27” television and the Luchisans’ car. …show more content…
The Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed Goins’ convictions; however they found errors in the sentencing through the incorrect application of the Ohio’s merger doctrine and lowered his sentence from 85 ½ years to 74 years after revising a robbery charge on March 21, 2005. Goins and the State appealed this to the Ohio Supreme Court which reversed and remanded for a resentencing hearing to remain consistent with the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Foster, 109 Ohio St. 3d 1 (Ohio 2006). See In re Ohio Criminal Sentencing Statutes Cases, 847 N.E. 2d 1174, 1175 (Ohio