Staff photo / Ed Runyan Cody Taylor of Bazetta, right, was sentenced to one year in prison Monday after pleading guilty to violating a protection order. At left is defense attorney Aaron Meikle.

WARREN — Cody M. Taylor, 36, of Henn Hyde Road in Bazetta, was sentenced Monday to one year in prison after pleading guilty to violating a protection order, a third-degree felony, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The incident was Dec. 11 at a home on Woodland Trail in Bazetta, during which Taylor tried to make contact with a woman who had a protection order against him as a result of a 2023 criminal case in Ashtabula County.

Assistant Prosecutor Mike Burnett said Taylor violated the protection order Dec. 11 by having contact with the victim “while he was in the process of committing an attempted burglary.”

Taylor was indicted on a charge of burglary, a high-level felony, for breaking the screen door.

The burglary charge was dismissed as part of Taylor’s plea. He could have gotten as much as three years in prison on the protection-order offense. The one-year prison sentence was jointly recommended to Judge Ronald Rice by the prosecution and defense.

Burnett said he spoke with the victim Monday morning. She said she was in favor of the plea and wanted him to relate to Rice and Taylor that “she does not wish bad things on this defendant. However, she does need him to understand that she does not want contact with him in the future.”

Defense attorney Aaron Meikle said Taylor and the woman had a “complicated relationship. Cody has struggled with drug addiction.” Taylor did not wish to make any comments.

Taylor had been set for trial on Monday, but that was not needed after he entered his guilty plea.