STEUBENVILLE – Brian L. Wood II, 31, who has addresses listed in Empire and Wellsville, was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday by Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge David Henderson after Wood pleaded guilty to the burglary of two houses and a business.
Wood pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, two counts of safecracking, four counts of theft and one count of breaking and entering.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department reported Wood was charged with the break-in and thefts from two homes in the New Somerset area and a business in the Goulds area. Wood is charged with taking a home safe, guns, jewelry and money during the break-ins, the sheriff’s department reported. The break-ins occurred from July 4, 2008, through Oct. 11, 2009. Wood also is facing lengthy prison sentences out of Columbiana County.
Wood told Henderson he will be pleading guilty to charges in Columbiana County that include aggravated burglary, with a firearm specification, and two counts of kidnapping. Wood and a co-defendant were charged with a Sept. 21 incident in which they robbed two men at gunpoint at a business near Salineville and then left the men bound and gagged with duct tape, according to a story in the Salem News. The defendants showed up at the property under the guise of needing to use the phone due to car problems, then threatened both men during the theft of $30,000 from a safe.
Wood said he will be sentenced to 10 years in prison on those Columbiana County charges.
Wood was sentenced less than two weeks ago in Columbiana County to two years in prison in connection with a December 2009 incident in Salineville in which Wood forced his way into a home and beat a man before stealing drugs from the man, as stated in another Salem News article.
Henderson said Wood’s Jefferson County sentence of six years in prison will be served concurrently to whatever sentence he receives in Columbiana County. The judge said he can’t control how the Columbiana County sentence will be served in relation to the Jefferson County sentence.
Wood told Henderson he has served most of his adult life in prison, including six years in a Tennessee prison and at least one year in a federal prison.
Wood blamed his drug addiction problem for the Jefferson County break-ins. He said he is a victim of the prison system, adding he couldn’t find a job when he wasn’t incarcerated.
Wood told Henderson he voluntarily contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department about his involvement in the Jefferson County break-ins.
In another sentencing, Karrie J. Leppert, 32, of 1538 Oregon Ave. was sentenced to a mandatory seven years in prison on Tuesday by Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. after Leppert pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and a first-degree felony drug possession.
The drug task force made two drug buys from Leppert in April and then raided her house on April 23, finding more than 100 grams of crack cocaine, the county prosecutor’s office reported.
Bruzzese ordered $17,401 in cash seized during the drug raid and drug sale be forfeited to the county drug task force.
Also, two men associated with a traffic stop in which a large amount of cocaine was discovered appeared before Henderson.
Larry O. Foster, 55, of East Liverpool was sentenced to six months in prison by Henderson after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.
Troy J. Jones, 30, of East Liverpool was the driver of a car stopped by Wells Township Police on state Route 7 on Jan. 20, 2010. An officer found 55 grams of powder cocaine. Jones also was charged in connection with a police chase along state Route 7 in June. He jumped out of the car and avoided apprehension near Pottery Addition. Officers found about 250 grams of crack cocaine in the vehicle. Jones was sentenced Jan. 14 by Henderson to nine years in connection with the cases.
Foster told a member of the county’s drug task force that the powder cocaine found in the car on Jan. 20, 2010, belonged to him. The drug task force officer told Foster he didn’t believe him. Foster wasn’t in the vehicle at the time of the police stop.
Jones later admitted the cocaine was his.
James R. Booker, 33, of East Liverpool, who was a passenger in the car, was charged with possession of drugs. The county prosecutor’s office dismissed the charge Tuesday after the investigation revealed Booker didn’t have knowledge that the cocaine was in the vehicle.