Ohio man convicted of nearly killing his wife's heroin dealer avoids jail time

Edwin Sobony II

An Ohio man won’t have to spend any time behind bars for nearly killing his wife’s heroin dealer with a baseball bat.

Edwin Sobony II, 38, found out he was getting off easy when he showed up for sentencing Wednesday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. He had been found guilty of attempted murder and felonious assault in connection with the attack and faced up to 8 years in prison. Instead, he walked out of court with a sentence of just probation for two years, Fox 28 Columbus reported.

Judge Charles Schneider told Fox Columbus that his sentence wasn’t an endorsement of what Sobony did.

“I certainly don’t want this decision to be viewed as support of vigilante justice,” he said.

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Rather, he said the sentence was his way of highlighting the problem of heroin addiction that is epidemic across the country.

“If this decision helps bring attention to the problem and how we have to get out in front of it then that’s very good,” he told the station.

Schneider said Sobony “just snapped” when he found the heroin dealer Larry Jewell on his property last December.

Witnesses testified Sobony had repeatedly told Jewell, his wife’s cousin, not to come near their house in Hamilton Township, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

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“My actions were a little aggressive,” Sobony said at the sentencing, according to the paper. “’I’m sorry, but I felt I was protecting my family.”

The paper said that outside court Sobony said his wife was dealing with her addiction.

“She’s fine,” he said. “We’ll put the pieces back together and get on with our lives.”