Stine gets 18 years for slashing

I was in life-or-death situation, attacked detective tells court

8/2/2013

Toledo Police Det. Deb Hahn said that in the moments before Deleno Stine slashed her face with a box-cutter, she knew his intent was not to get away from her but to hurt her.

“The fury that I saw in this young man’s face was something I had never experienced before,” she said in court Thursday. “I realized in my 28-year career I was now in a life-or-death situation.”

Stine, 18, of 1645 Western Ave., was sentenced by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ruth Ann Franks to 18 years in prison for the May 4 attack on Detective Hahn and an incident the night before in which he fired into a South Toledo home, grazing the arm of a woman inside.

When the hearing was over, Stine reacted in anger, shouting an obscenity and flailing his arms as court deputies tried to subdue him and remove him from the courtroom.

A relative in the courtroom also was escorted out after he reacted in disgust to the sentence saying, “He could’ve killed somebody and gotten less than that.”

Judge Franks asked the court reporter to note the defendant’s violent outburst.

“This is the attitude and the behavior of this defendant,” she said.

While Sara Roller, attorney for Stine, told the court her client had been raised among gang members and had several family members in prison, Judge Franks said that was no excuse.

She noted his lengthy juvenile record, which included four felony and 12 misdemeanor convictions beginning with a weapons charge when he was 13.

“This defendant, long before he became involved in the system at age 13 when he was first in court, was becoming a seasoned criminal, not because of the world around him but because of the choices he has made,” Judge Franks said.

“It’s clear he has no regard for authority or individuals in the community,” she continued. “He does what he wants to do irrespective of what the laws are and when he is faced with law enforcement officers he ratchets it up. He doesn’t take responsibility for what he has done.”

Stine, who was found guilty of felonious assault and improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation, shot into a home in the 800 block of Geneva Avenue on May 3 after a boy who lived there reportedly had gotten into an argument with Stine’s sister.

The next night he assaulted his girlfriend outside Fifth Third Field downtown, prompting several witnesses to alert Detective Hahn, who was in uniform but had just gotten off work at a nearby security detail.

The detective said she lunged at Stine to keep him from getting inside a car that his girlfriend was attempting to escape in, and in the ensuing struggle, Stine dislocated the detective’s shoulder and used a box-cutter style blade to cut her face.

With her left arm still in a sling, the detective told the court she received a heartfelt letter from Stine’s ex-girlfriend thanking her for intervening and saving her life.

“I would ask the court that Mr. Stine be sentenced to a period of time that would allow her to establish a life without fear of him getting out and retaliating and continuing this tyranny on her,” she said.

Prior to the sentencing hearing, Stine’s mother, Juanita Ruiz, 35, was charged with disorderly conduct/intoxication, resisting arrest, and obstructing official business after she allegedly caused a disturbance in the courtroom and refused to cooperate with court deputies.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.