Staff photo / Ed Runyan Kenyon D. Kellum, center, listens as his guilty verdict on felonious assault was read Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. At left is his attorney, Aaron Meikle. In the foreground is Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Trapp. Kellum was found not guilty of attempted murder. The charges were for stabbing a man Nov. 5 in front of a restaurant in Niles that left the victim with severe disabilities.

WARREN — Kenyon D. Kellum, 52, was found guilty of felonious assault but not guilty of attempted murder Thursday in the Nov. 5. stabbing of a 37-year-old man in front of a Subway restaurant along U.S. 422 in Niles.

A jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court deliberated about 10 hours over two days before delivering its verdict, finding Kellum guilty of knowingly causing serious physical harm to the other man but not guilty of attempting to kill the other man.

During the trial, jurors were able to watch 90 seconds of cell phone video showing the confrontation between the two men filmed by a young woman in a car with her boyfriend and infant child while waiting to make DoorDash deliveries.

It showed the various hand gestures, postures and movements of the two men and Kellum’s girlfriend handing Kellum a knife, which Kellum eventually swung violently downward into the victim’s left shoulder/neck area.

Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Trapp said in opening statements that the video makes it clear that Kellum “violently and unnecessarily attacked and stabbed” the other man. He said the victim’s injuries are too severe for him to testify at the trial.

Defense attorney Aaron Meikle, meanwhile, said Kellum acted in “lawful self defense.” Meikle said Kellum is accountable for what he did, but so is the victim – “for approaching strangers, for escalating and continuing a confrontation and for refusing to disengage when he had multiple opportunities to do so.”

The testimony of the woman who filmed the altercation and her boyfriend showed that they did not hear what the men were saying to each other, which hampered their ability to judge who was at fault for starting the argument.

Kellum tried to answer that question when he testified, saying that the other man instigated the argument by walking up to Kellum and his girlfriend and saying “‘Don’t ever ever disrespect'” him. Kellum said the man then “said something to my girl” and became aggressive.

The other man also “said I was going to die, and he was going to send me to hell,” Kellum said.

In a long back-and-forth between Kellum and Trapp as they watched the video, Trapp questioned why Kellum would need to stab the other man when Kellum was the only one with a weapon.

Kellum said he can not see out of one eye and is getting older. He said he thought the other man had something in his hand, though he did not know what it was.

VICTIM’S FATHER

The victim’s father, John Dixon of the Pittsburgh area, a former Pennsylvania State Trooper, testified that his son is now in a UPMC neurological rehab program that focuses on “people who are victims of brain injuries.” He said the program tries to help patients move from a “state of having their eyes open but no real connection to the next level of perception of what is going on and connecting with people.”

A doctor at St. Joseph Warren Hospital who treated the victim after the stabbing said the stab wound caused the area around the victim’s heart to fill with blood, causing cardiac arrest and requiring emergency surgery to save his life.

“From the cardiac arrest, he was dead for a period of time. We resuscitated him and got him back,” the doctor said.

As Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor read the verdicts Thursday, Kellum listened without showing outward signs of emotion.

Dixon told reporters after the hearing that he was happy with Kellum being found guilty of felonious assault, saying it was “a fair verdict.” He credited the jury with doing “an absolutely outstanding job deliberating” the differences between the attempted murder and the moderately less serious felonious-assault charge.

He said he suspects the jury wrestled with the question of what Kellum’s intent was in stabbing his son. He felt attempted murder and felonious assault were both valid charges, adding, “That’s a difficult job to be a juror.”

He said the incident has been “an extreme ordeal for my family. My wife is at my son’s bedside right now. He is still recovering. When I say recovering, he is going to have a life of disability and incapacitation. Violent crimes impact a lot of people, the victim, of course, but even the family and those who love him.”

PROSECUTOR

Trapp explained that even though Kellum was convicted of two counts of felonious assault, Kellum will be sentenced on just one. The felonious assaults carry a penalty of up to 12 years in prison — up to eight years on the felonious assault and up to four more years if Kellum misbehaves in prison.

Each felonious assault conviction has a repeat-violent offender specification. The judge decides whether any additional prison time should be added for that, Trapp said.

Kellum’s sentencing will be Feb. 17, after a presentence investigation of Kellum’s criminal history and background is provided to the judge.