The Columbus Dispatch – by John Futty
After watching his wife’s drug-dealing cousin repeatedly supply her with heroin and begging him to stay away from their Hamilton Township house, Edwin Sobony II snapped.
On Dec. 9, 2015, Sobony grabbed an aluminum baseball bat from his garage and sent Larry Jewell to intensive care with skull fractures.
Sobony’s attorney, Sam Shamansky, held the bat on Thursday in a Franklin County courtroom and told jurors that he would have gone further.
“I’d pull out this bat and I’d beat him to death because that’s what he deserves,” Shamansky said of the victim in a defiant closing argument.
“You come and mess with one of my family members and stick that poison in their veins … I’m going to take pleasure in splitting your head open.”
But the jurors weren’t swayed by the claim that Sobony was defending himself or his wife. They deliberated for less than three hours before convicting the mail carrier of one count of felonious assault.
He could be sent to prison for a minimum of two years or a maximum of eight when he is sentenced on Nov. 2 by Common Pleas Judge Charles Schneider.
Assistant Prosecutor Lindsay Miller told the jury that she didn’t like Jewell either, but that didn’t make him any less of a victim.
“The laws of the state that protect each and every one of us also protect a heroin addict like him,” she said in her closing argument. “You don’t have to like (Jewell) to find the defendant guilty of felonious assault.”
Sobony, 36, didn’t testify, nor did his wife, Marie Sobony. The victim was called to the witness stand by the defense, but refused to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.
Jewell, 46, has a record of drug offenses and a pending drug-possession charge. Detectives from the sheriff’s office identified him as a drug dealer during the trial.
Sobony told detectives that he saw Jewell with a knife before the beating, but later admitted that he planted a knife at the scene.
During a series of interviews with detectives, he said Jewell frequently went to the couple’s house, where they lived with their five children, to sell and do heroin with Mrs. Sobony. He said he once caught them with the drug in the bathroom of the house and that he repeatedly told Jewell to stay away.
On the day of the altercation, Sobony had stopped at a sheriff’s office on Lockbourne Road asking for help. He was told that he could obtain a civil protection order against Jewell.
Instead, Miller told the jury, Sobony decided that the best approach was “to take a bat and solve the problem yourself.”
Shamansky said that Sobony had run out of options and knew that his heroin-addicted wife could overdose before anyone intervened.
“How much time do you have before the next dose kills you?” he asked. “You don’t have any time.”
Shamansky referred to Jewell as a “scumbag,” “prick” and worse during his argument, and suggested that jurors would have done what his client did “if you had any sense of right and wrong.”
After an objection from Miller, the judge told jurors, “It’s not about what you would do and it’s not about what Mr. Shamansky would do.”
So if some guy is buggering your kid and you break his skull, he has the same rights as the rest of us. He should have just killed him and dumped the body. Nobody would think twice about a drug pusher ending up dead.
Always remember the 3 S’s
Shoot
Shovel
Shut up
I have little sympathy for the dealer, but the wife also bears responsibility for her own addiction. She presumably made the choices that led her down that path, and it remained her choice to either get medical help or remain addicted.
We should also remember that ultimately the reason why things like this happen is because drugs like heroin are illegal. We don’t see people trying to push alcohol on alcoholics. We don’t see dealers trying to get people hooked on inhalants (which are also highly addictive and far more dangerous than heroin). That’s because alcohol and inhalants are LEGAL. Only illegal drugs allow dealers to charge a huge risk premium, making the sale of those drugs extremely lucrative.
Sobony decided the best approach was “to take a bat and solve the problem yourself.” He “knew that his heroin-addicted wife could overdose before anyone intervened.” It only goes to show that if you want things done right, you do it yourself!
Sobony should have been exonerated and given a merit badge for community service! All he did was take the trash out.
I HATE TO ADMIT; BUT HAVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE GOTTEN TO
IMMORAL TO EVEN SIT AS JURORS???????????/
Should have said the guy was trespassing. He had been told to stay away, and his wife, if under the influence, is in no state of mind to make any decision about who should be in the house. If he has any sense, he’ll appeal.
“On the day of the altercation, Sobony had stopped at a sheriff’s office on Lockbourne Road asking for help.”
That’s what they’re there for… to ‘help’.
“He was told that he could obtain a civil protection order against Jewell.”
Paper documents are SO effective at protecting the public.
“After an objection from Miller, the judge told jurors, “It’s not about what you would do and it’s not about what Mr. Shamansky would do.”
True statement.
It’s about how much mammon can be extracted through that illegitimate court.
Bottom line (as I see it), the dope dealer was warned repeatedly to not come around that house. He could at least have had the common sense (and decency) to have the woman meet him elsewhere to buy her drugs.
He deserved exactly what he got.
“Paper documents are SO effective at protecting the public”…and so are laws and gun control laws.
like i said………… americans are to immoral to be jurors
the anerican people are to immoral to be jurors