Linda Harris IN COURT – Robert Lollathin addresses the court during his sentencing hearing in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court, where he continued to deny the charges and challenged the jury’s verdict despite being convicted of multiple felonious assault counts.

STEUBENVILLE — Robert Lollathin, a Dillonvale man prosecutors say subjected his live-in girlfriend to six years of physical and emotional abuse, will spend at least 17.5 years in prison and could serve up to 25.5 years after being sentenced for a brutal May 2025 assault.

Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Michelle Miller sentenced Lollathin, 39, to eight to 12 years in prison on each of two counts of felonious assault, plus 18 months for strangulation. The terms will be served consecutively, meaning he must serve each sentence in full before becoming eligible for release.

That total ranges from at least 17.5 years with good behavior to as long as 25.5 years depending on his conduct in prison.

“It’s not enough,” the victim’s mother said after sentencing, fighting back tears. “Life, that’s what he deserved–forever.”

Prosecutors said the May 2025 attack left the woman with severe injuries, including a broken eye bone in three places, a fractured wrist, and extensive bruising across her body.

Lollathin, who admitted in court to using methamphetamine for several months before the assault, denied responsibility, claiming the victim’s injuries were self-inflicted. He also alleged evidence had been altered and accused prosecutors and the court of “railroading” him.

“There’s no evidence that any of the evidence used in trial was (altered),” Prosecutor Jane Hanlin responded. “He thinks it’s true, that doesn’t make it true.”

Lollathin also asked the judge to vacate the jury’s verdict, but Miller rejected the request, telling him that issue would be handled through the appeals process.

In a two-page victim impact statement read in court by Hanlin, the woman described a pattern of escalating abuse that began early in the relationship.

He “painted a picture of a loving, caring man any woman would dream to date,” she wrote, but it quickly turned into “name calling, belittling and body shaming.”

She said the abuse escalated to violence, including a black eye, threats with a gun and repeated assaults.

“My mental state was to the point where I had tried hanging myself on several occasions…because after years of being led to believe that I was disgusting, fat, a waste of space and time, a whore, a door mat, a sorry excuse of a mom and girlfriend and–the best one–‘a dog’, (he) beat me, strangled me, threw me around like a rag doll, cut me with a knife and used me as his personal ashtray,” she wrote. “During the five hours of torture and abuse my body was receiving I (began) began begging him to kill me.”

She said she now considers herself a survivor and is proud she pursued justice.

“I am proud she didn’t let him scare me out of getting the justice I deserve,” she wrote.

Hanlin praised the victim’s strength, noting Lollathin represented himself at trial after firing both of his court-appointed attorneys.

“It’s the first time that I have been in a situation where I’ve had to watch the abuser cross-examine his victim,” Hanlin said. “She held him accountable.”

She added the case was one of the most severe she has prosecuted.

“There’s not an object in that house he didn’t beat her with, to say nothing of the broken bones in her wrist and eyes,” Hanlin said.

STEUBENVILLE — Robert Lollathin, a Dillonvale man prosecutors say subjected his live-in girlfriend to six years of physical and emotional abuse, will spend at least 17.5 years in prison and could serve up to 25.5 years after being sentenced for a brutal May 2025 assault.

Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Michelle Miller sentenced Lollathin, 39, to eight to 12 years in prison on each of two counts of felonious assault, plus 18 months for strangulation. The terms will be served consecutively, meaning he must serve each sentence in full before becoming eligible for release.

That total ranges from at least 17.5 years with good behavior to as long as 25.5 years depending on his conduct in prison.

“It’s not enough,” the victim’s mother said after sentencing, fighting back tears. “Life, that’s what he deserved–forever.”

Prosecutors said the May 2025 attack left the woman with severe injuries, including a broken eye bone in three places, a fractured wrist, and extensive bruising across her body.

Lollathin, who admitted in court to using methamphetamine for several months before the assault, denied responsibility, claiming the victim’s injuries were self-inflicted. He also alleged evidence had been altered and accused prosecutors and the court of “railroading” him.

“There’s no evidence that any of the evidence used in trial was (altered),” Prosecutor Jane Hanlin responded. “He thinks it’s true, that doesn’t make it true.”

Lollathin also asked the judge to vacate the jury’s verdict, but Miller rejected the request, telling him that issue would be handled through the appeals process.

In a two-page victim impact statement read in court by Hanlin, the woman described a pattern of escalating abuse that began early in the relationship.

He “painted a picture of a loving, caring man any woman would dream to date,” she wrote, but it quickly turned into “name calling, belittling and body shaming.”

She said the abuse escalated to violence, including a black eye, threats with a gun and repeated assaults.

“My mental state was to the point where I had tried hanging myself on several occasions…because after years of being led to believe that I was disgusting, fat, a waste of space and time, a whore, a door mat, a sorry excuse of a mom and girlfriend and–the best one–‘a dog’, (he) beat me, strangled me, threw me around like a rag doll, cut me with a knife and used me as his personal ashtray,” she wrote. “During the five hours of torture and abuse my body was receiving I (began) began begging him to kill me.”

She said she now considers herself a survivor and is proud she pursued justice.

“I am proud she didn’t let him scare me out of getting the justice I deserve,” she wrote.

Hanlin praised the victim’s strength, noting Lollathin represented himself at trial after firing both of his court-appointed attorneys.

“It’s the first time that I have been in a situation where I’ve had to watch the abuser cross-examine his victim,” Hanlin said. “She held him accountable.”

She added the case was one of the most severe she has prosecuted.

“There’s not an object in that house he didn’t beat her with, to say nothing of the broken bones in her wrist and eyes,” Hanlin said.

Cambridge, Ohio attorney Matthew Mollica, the second of his two court-appointed lawyers, served as his stand-by counsel when the trial resumed two weeks ago and at sentencing.

Miller asked Lollathin repeatedly if he wanted a court-appointed attorney to represent him on appeal but he refused to give her a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, saying only that he “was going to file his motion this month” each time he asked. She eventually told him she was appointing Charles Strader to represent him on appeal before telling the bailiffs “you can get him out of here.”