A Butler man was sentenced Wednesday to serve 15 to 30 months in state prison after pleading guilty to charges in three cases.

Donovan Tyler Barnes, 22, was given the prison sentence and ordered to serve 24 months of probation after he is released and pay fines totaling $500. Barnes pleaded guilty without a plea agreement to a felony charge of firearms not to be carried without a license in one case, misdemeanor charges of strangulation and simple assault in another case and a felony charge of fleeing from police in a third case.

County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune ordered the sentence after denying a request for immediate parole from Barnes’ court-appointed attorney Benjamim Levine.

Levine said Barnes should get credit for already having served 563 days in the county prison. According to court records, Barnes has been held in the prison since May 13, 2021, in lieu of bail.

When he was appointed to represent Barnes in March this year, Levine said the district attorney’s office had a plea agreement offer in place in which Barnes would serve 15 to 30 months in Butler County Prison.

Later, after Barnes served half of the 15-month minimum, the district attorney’s office changed the offer to 18 to 36 months in prison, Levine said.

Sometime after that, Levine said he was told about misconduct issues Barnes had in the county jail, and the district attorney’s office revoked the offer to allow him to serve his sentence there.

Levine said Barnes accepted responsibility for the crimes he was charged with, and would live with his mother in Butler and find a job if he was paroled. In addition, Levine argued that Barnes spent the entirety of his 21st year behind bars.

Assistant District Attorney Laura Pitchford said Barnes was involved in 20 incidents in the county jail including one incident in which he was charged with terroristic threats for threatening to shoot a corrections officer after he was released. She said the terroristic threats charge was resolved in district court.

Pitchford argued that Barnes is not amenable to county supervision and needs more intense supervision that the county jail can provide.

The firearms charge and a charge of possession of a controlled substance were filed by Butler City police following a May 12, 2021, incident.

The fleeing from police charge, along with eight summary traffic violations, were filed by state police following an April 5, 2021, incident.

The strangulation and simple assault charges, as well as several other charges, were filed by Butler Township police following a June 15, 2019, incident.