By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Julia Petrella may have pleaded down to a lesser felony, but the end result did not lend itself to being a happy occasion.
As Petrella turned 20 years old she also pleaded guilty to burglary, a third-degree felony, in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Tuesday afternoon. The charge, amended down from a second-degree felony, came with a 24-month prison sentence.
Petrella, of rural Bucyrus, escaped the maximum prison sentence due to the events of the case. According to Judge Sean Leuthold, Petrella and her boyfriend concocted and carried out a scheme to burglarize her family, who quickly figured out who did it and the items were returned before charges could be filed.
“Quite frankly, if that wasn’t the case you wouldn’t be getting 24 months in prison,” Leuthold said. “Why the heck did you burglarize your family?”
Sitting in the defendant’s chair, Petrella silently shook her head. “We were getting ready to lose our apartment,” she stated.
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Leuthold and 
both agreed that she was not agreeable to community control. McNeely, 33, admitted to violating her probation when she was caught speeding and driving under suspension in Morrow County on Aug. 4. As a result, she was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
The Galion woman originally pleaded guilty to drug possession in 2015.
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Sixty-four-year-old Daniel Earl of Crestline pleaded guilty to an amended charged of felony 4 aggravated assault. The charge was amended from felony 1 aggravated burglary. The incident stemmed from a landlord-tenant dispute.
Earl’s recommended sentence is five years on community control and restitution. His personal recognizance bond was continued during a pre-sentence investigation.
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Of the two judicial release cases Leuthold handled Tuesday afternoon, the one he wrestled with the most was Kenneth Demarco. Demarco was serving a nine-year prison sentence for sexual battery and pandering obscenity involving a minor.
“I’ve been dreading dealing with this all day long,” Leuthold said. “The court has struggled mightily in what to do in this case.”
Leuthold noted that Demarco could have been sentenced to a maximum of 13 years in prison when he pleaded guilty tin 2011, but his plea agreement under Judge Russell Wiseman allowed him to be released after serving five years of his sentence.
“There’s no way in hell I would have gone along with this agreement,” an angry Leuthold said. “Quite frankly, I would have made you do 10 years.”
Despite Leuthold’s animosity toward the agreement, he noted that the agreement was binding. Though he could have made Demarco serve the remainder of his sentence, doing so would release Demarco completely from the court’s supervision – something Leuthold was not willing to do right now. Instead, Leuthold, with “great reluctance,” granted the motion for judicial release and placed Demarco on supervision for five years.
Leuthold ordered Demarco to have no access to cell phones, computers, or other similar electronics, to not visit websites that were sexual or pornographic in nature, and to have no contact with the victim in the case or any minors.
“When I say nobody, that means nobody,” Leuthold stressed. “I’m taking no chances with you.”
Christopher Carrick was granted judicial release and placed on community control for five years. Carrick was serving a 12-month prison sentence for theft.