Leone

ELKINS — A Randolph County man was sentenced to seven years of supervised probation for receiving or transferring stolen property in Randolph County Circuit Court on Sept. 3.

Philip Curtis Leone, 41, was sentenced to not less than one, but no more than 10 years in prison, which was suspended for seven years of supervised probation, for one count of receiving or transferring stolen property by Randolph County Circuit Court Judge David Wilmoth.

As part of his probation, Leone is required to complete the treatment program he is currently in, pay restitution to the victim in full, pay back all of his outstanding fines and citations, and continue to maintain full-time employment.

Before Leone was sentenced, his attorney, Gregory Tingler, told the court that Leone has been extremely cooperative and is willing to make a change in his behavior. He added that Leone wants to “make the victim whole” as well as he can through restitution.

“There are events in people’s lives that are turning points,” Tingler told the court. “For some, it’s graduating high school, going to college, going into the military. Those are moments when a lot of people have a recognition that ‘I’m an adult now and I have to be responsible.’ For Philip, he was having a child… that was the turning point in his life… My client knows he did wrong and he’s got to make that right.”

Tingler asked the court to give Leone a suspended sentence, stating that it’d “be a shame at this point” to incarcerate Leone, who had been out of prison for a “significant period of time.”

Leone addressed the court, simply saying that he’d like to apologize for his actions, especially to the victim.

After sentencing Leone, Wilmoth stated that his reason for sentencing Leone to seven years of supervised probation was not only to give Leone time to pay the victim restitution but to also give the court more time to supervise Leone.

Wilmoth stated that “significant contact” between Leone and the probation office had, in the court’s opinion, been a “positive influence on Mr. Leone’s life,” and it would be inappropriate to end that contact prematurely.