WARREN — A Liberty man whose two-day trial ended in a split verdict April 14 was sentenced Thursday to the maximum three years in prison for a gun charge and six months in the Trumbull County jail for the domestic violence convictions.

A jury found Michael Derr, 33, not guilty of two counts of felonious assault, but guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two misdemeanor counts of domestic violence in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Derr and the mother of his child both testified April 14 regarding her allegations that Derr drove into the back of her car in the Liberty Plaza parking lot Nov. 10 after they argued and she left their home on Mansell Drive with their 6-month-old son.

She testified that Derr followed her in his car, resulting in her pulling into the plaza and the two cars stopping beside each other as the argument continued.

Defense attorney Aaron Meikle questioned the woman as to why she did not call police as she was driving away from their home if she was scared of Derr, and Meikle questioned her as to why she didn’t call police from the parking lot.

In both cases, she said it was because she was scared of him and because there was no time to make such a call.

Meikle asked her to walk him through the part where Derr hit her car. She said there was an open parking spot in front of her. She drove forward toward that spot because Derr was yelling profanities at her.

“After I pulled my car forward, that is when he whipped his car around and tried to block me in there,” she said. “When I pulled forward, he came forward and went right in front of my car. He turned right in front of my car.” He was still yelling at her.

He was telling her to go home, she said. “He kept repeating … threats over and over again,” she said.

He was toying with her by backing up like he was letting her leave but then pulled forward again, she said. He drove to another part of the parking lot, and she started to turn left to leave the plaza and saw Derr coming toward her again, she said.

So she changed course back toward the Walmart to remain in an area where other people were, she said. “He’s going at a high rate of speed to catch up to me,” she said. “As I was sitting there waiting to turn, he flew around the corner, and the next thing I knew, I was hit.”

The felonious assault charges related to Derr colliding with the rear end of the woman’s car. Derr maintained that the crash was an accident. The prosecution argued that it was intentional.

After he rear-ended her car, he got out and apologized, then drove off, she said.

Under cross examination by Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Burnett, Derr said he was convicted years earlier of breaking into a house and was convicted of that offense and a gun specification.

Derr said he drank about a half a pint of hard liquor the morning of the incident knowing that he was supposed to work that afternoon.

Derr admitted to Burnett that he was “inebriated” when police arrived at his house after the accident in the parking lot.

The gun charge stems from a 40-caliber firearm being found in Derr’s vehicle after the incident, and Derr is not allowed to carry a firearm because of an aggravated burglary conviction with a gun specification in 2013 when Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Ronald Rice sentenced him to four years in prison.