Man gets five years in Warren torture case

By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY Tribune Chronicle
WARREN — The first of three men accused of torturing a man with a blowtorch, electric grinder and sledge hammer over a drug debt was sentenced to five years behind bars Wednesday.

Michael DeSantis, 22, said nothing as he was sentenced by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay, who handed down three years for a firearm specification and two-year concurrent sentences on felonious assault and abduction, which was reduced from a kidnapping charge.

Cases still are pending against DeSantis’ father, Stephen H. DeSantis, 47, who lived with his son at 928 South St. S.E., and Brandon Finney, 22, 935 N. Mecca St., Cortland. Both face similar charges and remain in Trumbull County Jail.

The men are accused of kidnapping Shane DeSmith, 25, of Riverview Drive N.W., on Feb. 24 and torturing him over a seven-hour period. DeSmith said the ordeal was over a $50 bag of marijuana.

DeSmith told police his toenails were ground off and his toes ground down with the grinder after he was hit over the head with a beer bottle and then beaten with a 2-by-4 board and the sledge hammer. He said the father and son called the third man to come over and take part in the torture.

DeSmith said he finally told his captors to ‘‘just shoot me, dude.’’

Armed with a search warrant, detectives entered the DeSantis’ South Street home, confiscated a yellow chair, coveralls, a .32 caliber revolver with bullets, a hammer, torch and cleaning products, and took six evidence swabs wiped on the basement floor of the home.



cbobby@tribune-chronicle.com