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WARREN -- A Youngstown man pleaded guilty and was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for leading Liberty police on a chase in a stolen vehicle Dec. 29, 2025.
Leighland D. Johnson, 41, of Dupont Street, entered his guilty plea to charges of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer and felony vandalism before Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sarah T. Kovoor, who sentenced him to consecutive prison terms totaling 24 months.
The case stemmed from Dec. 29, 2025, when Johnson was driving a reported stolen vehicle and sideswiped a Liberty police cruiser trying to stop him. The chase proceeded along residential areas of the township at speeds of 60 mph.
The chase continued into Youngstown with speeds of 95 mph on Fifth Avenue and up to 100 mph on Interstate 680 before Johnson's vehicle was lost in traffic, according to a police report. Johnson later turned himself in. Because of the high speeds of the chase, the judge ordered Johnson's driver's license to be suspended for the rest of his life. She also ordered him to pay restitution of $2,288 for the damage done to the Liberty police cruiser.
Also sentenced Tuesday by Kovoor was Jimmie L. Shuman, 52, of Hobart Road in Leavittsburg, who was given a year in prison for a conviction on a felony charge of tampering with coin machines. Shuman pleaded guilty to the charge April 22.
Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Burnett said Shuman has a long criminal history of doing these types of thefts, with this particular incident taking place Oct. 27 at the Cortland Auto Spa.
Kovoor noted Shuman's 69 previous arrests and four previous prison terms when she sentenced him, according to the prosecutor's office. This sentence will be served consecutively to a one-year term Shuman received April 20 from Judge Ronald J. Rice for another tampering with coin machines offense that took place Sept. 21 in Warren Township.
Also Tuesday, Michael Fairclough, 36, of Hamilton Road, East Palestine, pleaded guilty to his fourth OVI offense in the last 10 years as well as to charges of tampering with evidence and assault on a peace officer.
Fairclough, who had previous OVIs in Jefferson County and in Struthers, will submit to a background investigation prior to sentencing. The latest OVI took place in Weathersfield when his 2008 Pontiac struck a mailbox.
The driver, identified as Fairclough, resisted officers and struck one in the head with his elbow. Prosecutors also stated Fairclough ingested an illegal narcotic during the struggle.