LISBON — Two defendants recently convicted and sentenced to prison, one for a 2022 knife attack against a woman and one for child abuse, appealed this week to the 7th District Court of Appeal.

A jury recently found Joseph Boyer, 52, last known address Ogden Street, East Liverpool, guilty of felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and domestic violence, a fourth-degree felony, for the attack on 7 July 2022 from East Liverpool.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam ordered Boyer to eight to 12 years in prison for felonious assault and 18 months for domestic violence, but to be served concurrently. He received credit for 785 days already served since his arrest on the day of the incident.

Since the term for felonious assault is indeterminate, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction could decide to keep Boyer in prison for up to four more years on top of the eight years he has to serve.

Prosecutors recommended consecutive sentences totaling a minimum of nine years, which is the sentence Boyer first received in April 2023 after pleading guilty to the charges. A charge of attempted murder was dropped by the prosecution due to legal issues.

Boyer tried to withdraw his plea, which the judge denied, but then his conviction was overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the trial court erred in denying the motion to withdraw the guilty plea.

The case returned to Common Pleas Court, this time ending in a jury trial, with a guilty verdict and a prison sentence.

Defense attorney T. Robert Bricker filed the appeal on Boyer’s behalf, but also asked to withdraw from the case and appoint a substitute appellate attorney. It is the dispositional entry regarding the sentence and the decision of the jury that is under appeal.

Also appealing was Melissa Mills, 40, Franklin Avenue, Salem, who was sentenced to an indeterminate term of four to six years in prison on three felony counts of physically abusing a child on a one month period in 2020.

Mills pleaded guilty in April to second-degree felony child endangerment and felonious assault and third-degree felony child endangerment.

During her recent sentencing, Washam denied her motion to withdraw her plea and proceeded with sentencing, ordering the terms on all three charges to run concurrently, with an indeterminate term of four to six years for the most serious of the two endangering children. 18 months for other child endangerment and three to four and a half years for felonious assault. She received credit for three days already served in jail.

Mills was charged with alleged child abuse and serious physical injury to a 4-year-old between May 25, 2020 and June 17, 2020.

She appealed the entry of the judgment on October 22, when her motion to withdraw was denied and she was sentenced. Her trial court attorney, Paul Conn, asked for an appellate attorney to be appointed for her and for the sentence to be stayed pending the appeal.

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