Toledo man sentenced to five years in prison for shooting man who reportedly threatened him

Houston Hart III.

A Toledo man was sentenced today to five years in prison for shooting a man who had reportedly threatened him at St. Paul’s Community Center.

Houston Hart III, 28, of 2338 Rockspring Rd., pleaded no contest and was found guilty July 15 of felonious assault with a firearm specification by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge James Bates.

Hart, who shot Louis Barton, 39, of Toledo April 25, was sentenced to a mandatory three-year term for the gun specification and just two years for felonious assault, a second-degree felony that carried a possible sentence of two to eight years.

Defense attorney Meira Zucker asked the court to consider the fact that Hart had no felony criminal record, that he’d maintained steady employment as the head cook at St. Paul’s for seven years, and that he was a peaceful person but for this incident, which was prompted by threats the victim had made to him that day.