LIMA — The second of four Lima residents charged in an organized scheme to carry out a robbery at a Brower Road apartment complex last fall pleaded guilty Tuesday to reduced charges.
Cardale Funches, 23, accepted an offer from prosecutors that called for him to plead guilty to an amended second-degree felony count of robbery. In exchange for that plea, the state removed language in the indictment alleging that Funches used a firearm in the commission of the crime and the felony was reduced from a first-degree felony charge.
Funches faces up to eight years in prison when he is sentenced July 15. Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Terri Kohlrieser said prison is not mandatory in the case but it is presumed that Funches will spend some time behind bars.
The Lima man is co-defendant in the case along with Jordyn Mitchell, Brenna Cochran and Isahia Dyous, who all conspired to rob Tyshawn Thompson outside the Maplewood/Northwood Apartments on Brower Road in Lima last September.
According to court documents, Thompson told police he had been kicked out of his apartment by Mitchell and their roommate, Brenna Cochran, and was to meet with Mitchell at approximately 1:50 a.m. outside the apartment complex to exchange some personal property.
Thompson said that during that meeting, two black males approached the group. One of the men, later identified as Funches, reportedly pulled a handgun from his sweatshirt and pointed it at Thompson before robbing him of his cellphone and identification. The other black male was later identified as Isahia Dyous.
Defense attorney Steve Chamberlain made a motion Tuesday asking that Kohlrieser approve an own-recognizance bond that would allow his client to leave jail to await sentencing. The judge said an OR bond was “not appropriate” but did reduce bond for Funches from $100,000 to $25,000 and said that if he is released he will be placed on house arrest until the time of sentencing and would be ordered to have no contact with the victim in the case.
First-degree felony charges of armed robbery with a firearm specification are still pending against Cochran and Dyous. Mitchell was sentenced in April to three years in prison on a second-degree felony charge of robbery.
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