Staff photo / Ed Runyan Whittington R. Davis, 38, North Feederle Drive SE in Warren, pleaded guilty Monday to felonious assault and obstructing official business for pushing a woman, causing a serious injury to her wrist last July 2.

YOUNGSTOWN — Whittington R. Davis, 38, North Feederle Drive SE, Warren, pleaded guilty Monday to felonious assault and misdemeanor obstructing official business in a July 2 episode in downtown Youngstown in which he injured a woman and was captured later after jumping from a downtown bridge.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Katherine Jones said prosecutors are recommending Davis receive four to six years in prison and pay restitution to the victim, who Jones said is “OK” with the plea agreement. Davis will be sentenced at 10:30 a.m. May 15. He was scheduled for trial Monday.

Davis appeared for the hearing in a jail jumpsuit and was in a wheelchair, apparently as a result of the injuries he suffered when trying to flee from police July 2.

According to Davis’ indictment, he caused serious physical harm to the victim. And the obstructing charge alleged he did “prevent, obstruct or delay the performance of a public official” in his duties and it “hampered or impeded” the public official.

Davis pleaded guilty before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito to both charges. His attorney will argue for fewer than four to six years in prison at sentencing.

During the hearing, the judge advised Davis that he could get as much as two years added to his four-year prison sentence under the provisions of Ohio’s Reagan Tokes law, which is in effect for crimes committed on or after March 22, 2019.

But he noted that last time statistics were provided to him late last year, the provision adding time to a person’s sentence was used only six times since the law went into effect.

VICTIM’S ACCOUNT

The victim told The Vindicator after the hearing that she was walking on West Federal Street near the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services building downtown July 2 with a friend when she saw a man about 80 years old experiencing a medical issue and stopped to help him.

She said she helped the man sit down on the edge of a planter to keep him from falling, then called the man’s son, who said he would come to the location. About that time, Davis, who was intoxicated, approached, and Davis tried to strike her male friend in the head, but only “clipped” her friend, she said.

The victim, Christine Smith, who said she had worked as a security guard for 38 years, told Davis to leave. She said Davis pushed her hand and she fell backward, injuring her wrist, which required a metal plate and eight pins to reconstruct.

She has limited mobility now in that wrist and she can no longer work as a security guard because of the vulnerability of the wrist, she said. She also can no longer work as a state-tested nursing assistant because of the physical demands of that job, she said.

“It’s been a long process and I’m in pain a lot,” she told the Vindicator, adding that she has lost some of the feeling in the wrist.

Smith noted that the aftermath of her assault was reported on television. One news account was that officers chased a man from downtown about 8 p.m. July 2.

The report stated that the man jumped off the Spring Common Bridge near the main Youngstown Fire station downtown and was injured when he hit the ground. The man was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Smith said she spends a lot of time in the downtown area and feels that there have been too many assaults like hers downtown.