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Former basketball player sent to jail

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer Updated 5:56 PM Thursday, January 12, 2012

HAMILTON — Even with serious felony charges hanging over his head, Daniel McElroy’s mother said West Virginia State University still wanted him to play basketball. Instead, the 22-year-old will spend three years in prison for his role in a robbery.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth sentenced McElroy and his co-defendant Eddie Willis, 21, both of Cincinnati, on Thursday for their part in a plot to rob a Lakota East student’s mother at gunpoint last summer.

McElroy, who the judge said was less culpable, got three years behind bars and a $5,000 fine on aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges.

Willis was sentenced to one year on the mandatory gun specification charge and four years for aggravated robbery and kidnapping.

The 17-year-old girl was sentenced by the juvenile court in September to a rehabilitation program in Greene County.

The girl’s 43-year-old mother told Butler County sheriff’s deputies she was asleep when two men armed with a handgun entered her bedroom at about 4:10 a.m. July 7 in the home on Elderberry Court in Liberty Twp. and demanded money and a cell phone.

She told them she had no money. When they tried to use duct tape to seal her mouth, she said she began screaming and pushing them, according to the sheriff’s office. At one point, she said, she put a stuffed animal over her head and told them to take anything they wanted, officials said.

They took jewelry and her cell phone and ran downstairs and out the back door of the home, according to authorities. The victim was taken to a hospital for facial injuries.

The girl originally told detectives she was asleep on the couch and saw two men at the back door, officials said. She told police she ran to the laundry room and closed the door, hearing only her mother’s screams, officials said.

Prior to sentencing, Karen McElroy told the judge her son has never been in trouble and if the judge was lenient, her son could be off to college next week.

“He has an opportunity to go to West Virginia State University. They called him, he didn’t call them, they called him, they want him to go to school and play ball,” she said. “I laid it all out on the line and they still want to give him a chance.”

Both young men apologized for their actions and said this was a one-time lapse in judgement. Spaeth said there was a real victim in this case and she was harmed, so he had no choice but to sentence the men to prison. He also ordered them to split restitution in the amount of $862 the victim incurred for medical treatment.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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