Pak-A-Sak robber enters guilty plea

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A man accused of robbing the north Pak-A-Sak convenience store late last year was one of two people who appeared Thursday in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court for plea change hearings.

John Gosnell, 26, of Paulding, changed his plea to guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery, a felony of the first degree. In exchange for his guilty plea, a specification that he used a firearm in the offense was dismissed. Firearms specifications carry a mandatory three-year prison sentence consecutive to any other sentence handed down.

Judge Martin Burchfield then sentenced Gosnell to nine years in prison, to run concurrently with similar prison terms handed down in Defiance and Paulding counties for robberies committed in those counties.

He was also given credit for 65 days already served while awaiting sentencing.

Gosnell showed employees a small silver handgun when he robbed the Pak-A-Sak convenience store at 800 N. Washington St. on November 14, 2015. He was later arrested by officers from the Paulding Police Department as a suspect in a similar robbery committed in that village.

He was arraigned on December 9 in Common Pleas Court and ordered held on a $100,000 cash bond.

Troy Christman, 26, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, changed his plea to guilty to a charge of attempted aggravated possession of drugs, a misdemeanor of the first degree (reduced from aggravated possession of drugs, a felony of the fifth degree).

Christman was then sentenced to 90 days in jail, which was then suspended on the condition that he successfully completes drug court in Fort Wayne.