Man charged with pointing gun during restaurant scuffle to serve almost 3 years behind bars
The man caught on video pointing a gun at multiple people inside an Ypsilanti Township restaurant during a melee earlier this year will serve nearly three years behind bars.
Ronjour Jacobs
Photo courtesy of WCSO
Ronjour Jacobs, 32, of Ann Arbor, was sentenced Monday to 10 months in the Washtenaw County Jail on one charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. Before serving that sentence, he will serve two years in prison on a charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Darlene O’Brien ruled.
Jacobs declined to speak before being sentenced Monday but his attorney, Leslie Knapp, said he recognized his behavior on the night of Jan. 11 was wrong.
“His behavior that night was egregious and it was unacceptable behavior,” Knapp said.
On the night of Jan. 11, Jacobs was at Luca’s Coney Island, 2469 Washtenaw Ave. in Ypsilanti Township, where a fight broke out between two different groups of customers and, near the end of the scuffle, Jacobs pulled out a handgun, according to deputies.
Video shows a man police said is Jacobs pointing the handgun in different directions. At one point, he puts the gun to the back of a man’s head for approximately five seconds. He then points the gun at the same man as he flees around the restaurant and then focusing on a woman who had been knocked to the ground. The video shows the man pointing the gun at the woman’s head for about five seconds.
Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecutor Brenda Taylor provided O’Brien with still images from the video to show the horror on the victims’ faces.
“(The images) show … the choices he made on the night of the incident were terrifying,” she said.
Restitution in the case must be determined within 90 days, O’Brien ruled.
The incident was the last straw for Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies, who asked Luca’s to close down between midnight and 5 a.m. every night. In the last four-and-a-half years, deputies were called to the then-24-hour restaurant 225 times.
Owner George Gsoskas said in February he volunteered to close the restaurant during the late night hours, when approximately 70 percent of the calls occurred.
"I did my best as a business owner to have security, but I don’t want to risk it," Gsokas told AnnArbor.com. "I am a very peaceful person and I don’t want bad things to happen, not just in the restaurant, but in the whole world. I want to have peace.
"I try my best to make sure to have no trouble, but people coming from bars, they're kind of drunk and it's hard to deal with them. I make this decision to voluntarily close on the third shift."
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
handcuffed
Sat, Apr 6, 2013 : 2:19 a.m.
No mention of the two girls in blue who are the fighters?
JimJoad
Wed, Apr 3, 2013 : 1:49 p.m.
Insane sentence. Unarmed theives who come into Ann Arbor and steal from homes routinely get five years prison but a man threatens people with a handgun in a family restaurant gets only two years prison and 10 months jail time? At the very time when crime is climbing, police forces get cut backs and courts reduce sentences for violent PUBLIC crime ---to save money. Message? ya'll can attack each other Ypsi way but don't ya'll dare enter my Ann Arbor, from where I pontificate how ya'll should think & steal my microwave & laptop. No one in that court higher than the clerks or janitor live in Ypsi !!
a2citizen
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 7:21 p.m.
Kyle, Did the police ever identify the second gunman?
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 8:59 p.m.
Not that I'm aware of , a2citizen. Mr. Jacobs is the only person I know of who has been charged in this case.
Hmm
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 6:02 p.m.
Bonjour Ronjour
Bcar
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 7:12 p.m.
now thats funny!
Jay Thomas
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 4:26 p.m.
Someone claimed these were university students. I doubt it!
Lovaduck
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 4:17 p.m.
Notice, please that he's from Ann Arbor!
JM
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 3:12 p.m.
If this guy had been from Ypsi the headline would have reflected that. Why didn't the headline read, "Ann Arbor man charged with..."
Basic Bob
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 8:57 p.m.
a2 exporting crime to ypsi
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 6 p.m.
because its in Ann Arbor.com not Ypsi.com. Banging on Ypsi is what we do in Ann Arbor. It makes us feel superior and self important.
Major
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 2:29 p.m.
Three years and I bet they let him out in 1. This is why gun control laws DO NOT WORK....the court doesn't enforce them!!!! It's the equivalent of a screen door in submarine!!
gig
Wed, Apr 3, 2013 : 7:30 p.m.
Did he legally possess/carry this gun? I doubt it. Gun control laws won't prevent him from getting another when he's back from camp.
Jack Gladney
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 3:08 p.m.
Wrong Hunterjim. He will be disqualified from legally possessing a firearm.
Hunterjim
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 2:48 p.m.
Can't. Two years have to be served. Plus he will be disqualified from ever possessing a firearm again.
Jack Gladney
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 2:17 p.m.
Never introduce a gun into a heated situation unless you are prepared to use it because you'll likely end up wounded, dead or in jail (see the Penninsular Place story).
Kea
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 9:57 p.m.
Or all three.
seldon
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 5:24 p.m.
Note however that in the Peninsular Place story, he removed his gun from the situation.
a2cents
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 1:26 p.m.
"...good guys with guns..." the saying goes.
Buckybeaver
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 12:55 p.m.
The question I have is, was the gun loaded and how close was he to actually firing it.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 2:31 p.m.
I'll give Bucky a thumbs up. I was wondering if the gun was loaded too. There are some folks (maybe very few) who may not always have bullets in their gun. I'm just saying that 100% of all guns in peoples pockets at at any given time aren't loaded. The number of loaded guns is something less than 100%
WalkingJoe
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 2:22 p.m.
In my opinion only he can answer how close he was to firing the gun. And with all the jostling it is lucky he didn't fire after being bumped.
BamFroKage
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 1:39 p.m.
he was less than two inches and maybe a VERY small number of lbs per square inch from actually firing it...if i know guns correctly of course.
tdw
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 1:35 p.m.
Huh????
justanothervoice
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 12:38 p.m.
Nearly three years in prison, ruining his opportunities? Most likely the seedbed for a life of more crime... Can't we find better ways to rehabilitate than just sending a man behind bars for so long in such a case?
tinkerbell
Fri, Apr 5, 2013 : 12:17 a.m.
Rehab comes from within, per a retired probation officer
Stuart Brown
Wed, Apr 3, 2013 : 3:19 a.m.
The article never made it clear or not if they man was simply trying to defend himself and others or if he was one of the aggressors. Did he have a CCW permit or was he packing illegally? I would really like to know about the context and what the actual role was of this individual. The sentence sounds too harsh.
stevek
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 12:50 p.m.
No we can't. We didn't ruin his opportunities, he did. He knew the consequenses of his actions and he chose the way to handle the situation. The longer he spends in prison, the better.
Gerry
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 12:33 p.m.
It is not pretty when "law abiding gun owners" go bad.
nvragain
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 3:05 p.m.
Not saying this subject was or was not intoxicated(who goes to Coney island at 1am) but had he been, he would not have been a "law abiding gun owner", as it is illegal to carry a pistol with any amount of alcohol in ones blood.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 12:02 p.m.
In my experience the Taco Bell has a more genteel clientele. On the other hand I'm never there after 7pm.
Ricebrnr
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 11:59 a.m.
So...was he carrying legally? Only the one weapons related charge?
hepcat
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 5:21 p.m.
When this story first broke it was reported that he had a permit.
L. C. Burgundy
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 4:56 p.m.
Let me be the first to say that I sincerely doubt this man had a permit to carry concealed. Criminals, as a rule, don't bother with them, and permitted carriers are among the most law-abiding segments of society that exists, statistically speaking. Also, nothing I've seen mentioned about this case indicated a suspension or revocation of a permit which would certainly occur under these circumstances.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 11:40 a.m.
"10 months in the Washtenaw County Jail on one charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.... two years in prison on a charge of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony" _______ Are these charges both from the same incident as described in the story? If so I get charge #1 but what triggered charge #2?
AfterDark
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 6:50 p.m.
Automatic Michigan gun sentencing has been in place for quite some time - one with a gun gets you two. The usual scenario is armed robbery but assault works, too. If he'd used anything but a gun (knife, baseball bat, crowbar) he'd skate with the ten months.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 5:56 p.m.
Rod, if your right then essentially it amounts to..... 10 months for assault with a dangerous weapon 24 months for using a dangerous weapon in an assault. I'm not soft on crime but somehow that doesn't seem right. It seems like one crime with 2 convictions.
Rod Johnson
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 5:25 p.m.
Isn't assault the felony? It does seem a little circular.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 11:43 a.m.
I should make it clear I have no problem with the time he will do for what was described in the story.
Bcar
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 10:49 a.m.
play stupid games win stupid prizes... bye bye.
Arboriginal
Tue, Apr 2, 2013 : 10:36 a.m.
That's it?