YOUNGSTOWN — Artangel M. Rayford, 21, of Tenney Avenue in Campbell, was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to burglary and aggravated assault in a Sept. 10, 2023, incident in Campbell in which Rayford entered another man’s home and assaulted him.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Anthony D’Apolito asked Rayford some questions about his guilty pleas to mid-level felonies before he was ready to determine the sentence to hand down.

Steve Maszczak, an assistant county prosecutor, explained beforehand that Rayford committed the burglary and assault as a result of a conflict involving Rayford, the man and a young woman, who had dated both men.

The woman had been dating the victim at one time but was dating Rayford at the time of the offenses. “There was some type of altercation. I don’t know if words were exchanged. Defendant ends up going to the victim’s house, goes in the house unannounced and goes to the victim’s bedroom, where he knocked on the bedroom door, victim opened it, they got into a fistfight.”

Maszczak said there were no weapons involved, but Rayford assaulted the victim “inside his own home.”

“The victim was beaten up pretty good. Bruising on his face, some broken teeth. Because of the facts, the State has no other option but to make a recommendation of” prison time for Rayford,” Maszczak said.

Rayford’s attorney, Tom Zena, said he thinks the young woman “perpetrated both men into actions against each other. My client’s mistake, of course, was going into the home of the victim in this case, and the altercation was all within the home.”

Rayford fumbled his words when he made a statement to the judge, so the judge asked him to clarify a few points, especially how words between Rayford and the other man over a woman turn into “I’ve got to go to his home, to his room and fight him?”

The judge noted that “Men have a lot of history of overreacting, thinking they possess women and being personally offended when a woman moves on from them.”

Rayford responded that the other man was calling the woman’s phone and Rayford’s phone. “I tried to ignore it, but he kept picking a fight, and my emotions got the best of me,” Rayford said. The only explanation is “stupidity,”Rayford said, though the other man “was telling me to come fight him, honestly, but that does not make what I did OK.”

The judge wondered how Rayford took such a “big step — to go to someone’s home,” which is much more serious than meeting up in a parking lot for a fight.

The judge added, “I can’t let people go to people’s homes and barge in and pick fights.” The judge said when a person is at home, “we expect there is some degree of security and privacy in our home. And these folks (the victim and his father) did nothing to deserve (this). And once it’s shattered, it kind of shakes you a bit.”

The judge said the maximum sentence Rayford could get was 4 1/2 years in prison. But several factors worked in Rayford’s favor, such as the victim being agreeable to the plea agreement and Rayford’s young age.