Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Joseph S. Rosario, 25, of Brookfield, was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification in the July 2018 shooting death of Jason Drummond of Brookfield.

WARREN — A Brookfield man who had been a fugitive for about two years pleaded guilty Thursday to reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter, carrying a concealed weapon and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle connected to the 2018 killing of a Masury man.

Joseph S. Rosario, 25, of Warren Sharon Road, was sentenced to consecutive sentences totaling 17 years in prison by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Peter J. Kontos.

Rosario, through his attorney Aaron Schwartz of Strongsville, had agreed to a plea deal that reduced the two murder charges to a first-degree manslaughter charge with a gun specification that carries an additional three mandatory years in prison. The plea deal offset a jury trial that was scheduled to begin June 7 in Kontos’ courtroom.

Kontos said consecutive sentences were necessary because of the seriousness of the offenses.

Assistant Prosecutor Charles Morrow said Rosario was charged in the July 27, 2018, death of Jason Drummond, who was shot in the back of the head while he was driving along Warren Sharon Road. Morrow said Drummond just had committed a robbery at a Brookfield home, and Rosario had learned about it while overhearing a phone conversation with the victimized homeowner. Rosario then took off in a vehicle that passed Drummond’s car on the road. Morrow said Rosario stopped his car, got out and started shooting at the eastbound vehicle.

A passenger in Drummond’s vehicle took the wheel and drove to Brookfield Avenue in Masury, where police were made aware of the crime. The victim first was taken to a Sharon hospital and later was transferred to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he died.

Brookfield Detective Sgt. Aaron Kasiewicz’s investigation led to Rosario. While executing a search warrant on his Warren Sharon Road apartment, authorities learned Rosario had fled the state.

Morrow credited Kasiewicz’s “tireless efforts” in bringing Rosario back to Ohio and justice.

An arrest warrant, obtained for Rosario through the Trumbull County Eastern District Court, was forwarded to the U.S. Marshals Service and the New York City Police Department, which made the arrest in the borough of Queens in August 2020.

After various legal maneuvers surrounding his extradition, Rosario was booked into Trumbull County jail Oct. 26, 2020, jail records show.

At Thursday’s hearing, Kontos credited Rosario with serving about 200 days in the county jail, but Schwartz disputed that number, saying he wanted his client to be credited back to his time of arrest in New York City.