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WARREN -- Jurors deliberated about an hour before convicting a city man involved in a domestic dispute that ended in a shooting.
The verdict, read Tuesday by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice, declared 52-year-old John Daniel Jr. guilty of second-degree felonious assault and fourth-degree felony domestic violence. The charge of felonious assault has a firearm specification attached.
The jury found Daniel not guilty on a third-degree weapons under disability charge. Rice revoked Daniel's bond and deputies took him into custody.
He will appear back in court at 1 p.m. Feb. 13 for sentencing.
Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker said Daniels faces a potential sentence of five to 15 years.
"Of course we're going to ask for a lot of time since Mr. Daniel already has some prior offenses of violence in his past and apparently his modus operandi is that he hits women and household members because this is at least the third domestic violence conviction he's had," Becker said.
After the verdict, Becker explained that Daniel was prohibited from owning a firearm stemming from prior felony domestic convictions.
Despite the designation, evidence was presented by Daniel's attorney showing he was able to purchase a firearm legally from a federally licensed dealer in Trumbull County, which also meant passing a background check. Becker questioned how that came to be. Prosecutors and a police report say officers were dispatched to an apartment in the 4500 block of Berkshire Drive after the victim called to report that her boyfriend, Daniel, shot her brother.
Warren Police Sgt. Trevor Sumption arrived first whereas the then-girlfriend directed Sumption to her brother. She identified Daniel as the shooter who was applying pressure to a gunshot wound to the torso of the male victim in the matter.
Daniel told police the gun was in a red wagon behind the apartment complex, where it was retrieved by police.
Leading up to the shooting, she told police she had been fighting with Daniel all day and that he had been sitting in the car drinking before entering the apartment to continue arguing with her.
She told police that Daniel accused her of sleeping with her ex before he got on top of her while she was in bed and then began punching her in the face.
The victim's brother, who lived with the couple, tried to intervene and threw Daniel off his sister as the two then began to have a physical altercation.
Daniel retreated to a bedroom where he grabbed a firearm from a drawer as he then chased the victim's brother around the apartment complex while shooting at the man, striking him in the arm and torso as the man laid in the front lawn, where Sumption arrived to find him shortly after.
Police reported that the two victims were bleeding from the mouth.
Becker credited the investigative work of Warren police for helping provide the evidentiary basis for the case. Testimony was provided by two members of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Warren police detectives Brian Crites and Nicole Smith, Sumption also testified on behalf of the state.
cmcbride@tribtoday.com