Area Drug Dealer Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison

A Youngstown man who authorities call one of the area's biggest drug dealers is on his way to prison.

Dewaylyn Colvin, 31, of Nelson Avenue, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree felony drug trafficking, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, having weapons as a convicted felon and drug possession.

He was sentenced Wednesday to 11 years in prison, but could have faced up to 41 years. He also was ordered to forfeit $3,380, which prosecutors said was profit from drug sales. He will have to serve at least eight yearsbefore he is eligible for any type of release.

Although prosecutors said the defendant has had run-ins with the  legal  system since he was a teenager, Colvin tried to convince Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Lou D'Apolito that he was simply a man who has been unlucky at  turning his life  around.

At one point, the defendant's father made a plea in his son's behalf.

"Your honor, I'm here to ask for mercy for my son," said Rev. Sherwood Jackson.

But while Jackson claimed he would help his son get a job, the judge wondered where he'd been for all the years Colvin already has spent behind bars.

"You think maybe you're a little late?," D'Apolito said.

"It took a while to put together.... Walmart don't pay that much," Jackson replied.

Fr. Greg Maturi of St. Dominic Church told the judge Colvin gave police information that ultimately solved the murder of Angeline Fimognari in the church parking lot in 2010.

When it was his turn to speak, Colvin said he's tried to turn his life around, only to revert back to crime to support his family.

"They didn't have jobs. They was still in school and they didn't have no money to provide for one another, and I made a mistake and I slipped up and turned back to what I knew best," Colvin said.But prosecutors said Colvin can't be believed, and countered his request by showing off some of the drugs, weapons and other items seized when police raided his home, including several banana-clip magazines for assault rifles. They also showed off an organizational chart suggesting Colvin supplied  drugs to other street-level  dealers in the area.

"The whole spiel about he was trying to help his family, he's driving around a Cadillac Escalade. He's not doing this to make money for his family, he's doing this because he's a greedy drug dealer. He's trying to make money, he's trying to flaunt it and he did. He used his money for other activities," said Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Marty Desmond.

In the end, the judge said he couldn't overlook the severity of the charges.

"And the ramifications of drugs, not only in Youngstown, Ohio, but in America, and the devastation that it causses, and the peripheral murders that occur because of the drug wars that go on," D'Apolito said.