Common Pleas: Court Case Study

MILLERSBURG — Despite a plea for leniency expressed by the victim, a Sugarcreek man was unable to overcome a long history of criminal convictions and a bond violation when a Holmes County judge on Wednesday sentenced him to prison for making unwanted phone calls and threats to several members of a family over a period of months.
David Lamar Schrock, 43, of 2578 State Route 39, previously pleaded guilty in Holmes County Common Pleas Court to two counts of telephone harassment and one count of menacing by stalking. In exchange for his guilty plea, the state agreed to dismiss two additional counts of telephone harassment and three counts of menacing by stalking.
The charges are made more serious because Schrock was convicted, in January 2016,

Holmes County Assistant Prosecutor F. Christopher Oehl said he did not oppose concurrent sentences only because a guilty plea resulted in more efficient use of county resources, not because Schrock should receive some sort of credit for being similarly motivated in each of the crimes.
Thumbing through pages outlining Schrock 's criminal history, Judge Robert Rinfret said, “To be perfectly frank, your record is truly one of the worst I 've seen in my life. It goes on for pages.”
Reading through a list of criminal convictions for a variety of property, drug and personal crimes in several Ohio counties, as well as Florida and Washington, Rinfret commented on a seemingly endless pattern of criminal behavior spanning decades.
“I made a lot of mistakes,” Schrock said.
“That 's an understatement,” Rinfret responded, adding the crimes at hand were facilitated by Schrock 's relationship with his victims.
However, considering several letters of support, including one from his victim advocating for Schrock 's release, Rinfret said, “I 'm amazed by the absolute kindness of