LISBON –The man accused of secretly taking videos of women and girls last year in the Walmart dressing room and the Planet Fitness locker room, both in Calcutta, must serve 10 months in prison.

Shane Lee Wright, 25, Laredo Drive, Negley, appeared for his reset sentencing hearing Monday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for fifth-degree felony voyeurism and misdemeanor possessing criminal tools.

He entered guilty pleas in June to both charges filed through prosecutor’s information without the case going through the county grand jury.

Judge Scott Washam on Monday said he reviewed the additional information submitted by defense attorney Chris Amato that he requested concerning Wright’s medications and mental health. He said what stuck out when he looked at the pre-sentence investigation and other information was that he expected to see more manifestation of trouble during Wright’s life, but everything seemed normal with Wright.

Washam also pointed out that Wright said he did what he did “for his own sexual gratification” and the judge added that his actions were methodical.

During the previous sentencing hearing on Aug. 15, county Assistant Prosecutor Steve Yacovone said in August 2024, Wright was found in the rafters of Planet Fitness on state Route 170 and admitted to St. Clair Township police officers that he went to the women’s locker room to take pictures of women. He also slid his phone into the changing room at the Calcutta Walmart while women and a juvenile were changing. Some of the videos even showed Wright’s face in the rafters at Planet Fitness, then the women.

Also during the previous hearing, Amato said Wright had been diagnosed bipolar and his medication was changed after he was on the wrong medication for years.

Washam, though, in talking about Wright’s actions, said it “makes me believe medication is not at the root of his behavior.”

Then Washam said that Wright victimized innocent people. He referred to a victim impact statement from the relative of a juvenile victim who now has mental health issues and feels antsy about her surroundings, saying there was absolutely no excuse for Wright’s actions.

He denied Amato’s request for community control, issuing the 10-month prison term along with designating Wright a Tier I sex offender that will require him to register as a sex offender after he’s released from prison.

Amato, accompanied by fellow defense attorney Frank Williams, said before the sentence was issued that “we don’t believe you’ll ever have this defendant in front of you again.”

“I am sincerely sorry for what I’ve done,” Wright said when given the chance to speak.

He told the judge he received the help he needed and again said “I want to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.”

The sentence was two months short of the 12 months Yacovone had requested. Yacovone pointed out that Wright didn’t start counseling until after he was caught and he also pointed out that the court didn’t get to hear the impact to the victims, of women and a juvenile who were in places where they expected privacy.

“He violated that privacy they thought they had,” Yacovone said.

Besides a letter from the Counseling Center and a medications record from Mercy Health, Amato also submitted a letter from the mother of Wright’s child and from a minister. He said he had a full-time job and was going to counseling.

During the previous sentencing hearing, Wright’s father spoke about his son’s lifelong mental health issues and problems with wrong medications, telling the judge he was adopted by the Wrights at 28 months old and prior to that he spent long hours in his car seat, marijuana smoke was blown in his face and beer was placed in his bottle. At the time, he said he wasn’t trying to give excuses, but just sharing what they went through before the incident last year.

Wright was originally charged in August 2024 in county Municipal Court with fifth-degree felony voyeurism and misdemeanors of possessing criminal tools, inducing panic and eight counts of voyeurism.

The victim in the charge for the plea was identified as a 15-year-old who should have had a reasonable expectation of privacy on Aug. 12, 2024 at Walmart in the changing room. The charge said that from Aug. 12, 2024 through Aug. 23, 2024, the day he was caught, Wright did “knowingly commit trespass or otherwise secretly or surreptitiously videotape, film, broadcast, stream or other record” the victim. The criminal tool was his cell phone.

According to a police affidavit filed in Municipal Court, Wright told a detective that “he gained access through the ceiling in the men’s locker room, then maneuvered to different areas of the building (women’s locker room/tanning beds) to take the videos/photos of women with his cell phone. Shane L. Wright stated he does this for sexual gratification.”

During the investigation, videos were observed on his cell phone, including the one of the known female juvenile inside the dressing room at the Calcutta Walmart on Aug. 12.

According to the affidavits in the files, three videos were recorded on Aug. 12 and two on Aug. 21 of unknown females inside the dressing room at the Calcutta Walmart. Those videos were in addition to the one of the juvenile.

There was also evidence that Wright took videos of two different unknown women on Aug. 22 in the bathroom area of the women’s locker room at Planet Fitness from an elevated point, with the women unaware of the recording taking place. Video from Aug. 21 showed a woman getting undressed in a tanning bed room at Planet Fitness, also from an elevated point with the woman unaware of the recording taking place.

A number of family members and supporters were in the courtroom for Shane Wright. No victims appeared to be present, with Yacovone speaking on behalf of the victims.