Girard man gets year in prison for vandalizing Trumbull County Courthouse

WARREN -- The Girard man caught on surveillance footage breaking several windows at the Trumbull County Courthouse was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison.

Christopher Gembicki, 37, was also ordered to pay $3,490 in restitution for damage he caused to the four windows by Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Ronald Rice.

When asked how he planned to pay, Gembicki, who was homeless prior to his arrest, said he'd need to get a job and secure funds. Rice,

however, expressed his doubts Gembicki would pay for the damage he caused.

"The chance you make restitution is about the same chance I have of winning the super lotto," Rice said.

"Why would I in my wildest imagination believe that you're ever going to pay a penny. You never kept your word with any judges, you stood up in court and said, 'Judge give me probation and I'll pay it,' you never paid a thing. That says more about you than anything," Rice said.

Rice went through Gembick's arrest history, which dates back when he was 14 years old, and includes time spent in federal prison after he made violent and racially motivated threats to former President Barack Obama, threatened to bring harm on a Cleveland area mother and her children as well as threatening to kill and drink a California man's blood, according to court records.

Gembicki pleaded guilty in December to damaging the courthouse, but a warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear for his original sentencing hearing in mid-January.

Surveillance footage from Oct. 1 shows Gembicki, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, walk up to the east side of the building, throw rocks at it and then walk away.

He turned himself in to the Warren Police Department shortly after.

The windows have been replaced.

A similar courthouse vandalism incident occurred in November 2021.

Joanna McCane, 44, of Youngstown, was sentenced to five years and forced to pay $5,000 in restitution after breaking about 12 windows of the courthouse using a rock.