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WARREN -- A Hiram man said he went out Tuesday night to celebrate his 20th birthday, but ended up with two felony charges, a drunken driving charge and a badly damaged truck.
Billy A. Troyer, 20, of Vista Drive, was taken to the Trumbull County jail sometime Wednesday and was due to be released from the jail Thursday after appearing Wednesday before Warren Municipal Court Judge Patricia Knepp, who set bond of $2,500 for Troyer, who posted it Thursday.
He is charged with felonies of being a felon in possession of a firearm, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and misdemeanors of using weapons while intoxicated, OVI and failure to control.
A Warren officer responded to a vehicle crash at 11:06 p.m. with a pole down on Atlantic Street NW near Pacific Street, just west of North Park Avenue, and found a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado parked in the eastbound lane of Atlantic Street with heavy front-end damage.
Several witnesses said the driver, later identified as Troyer, had run through the yards northbound. The officer heard someone yell, "Get off my property," and "He's over there."
A report states that Troyer then came running south across Atlantic Street before cutting over to North Park and continuing south on the west side of the road. The officer called for more officers to assist. The first officer saw that the truck had been traveling east on Summit Street and failed to negotiate a curve and left the roadway to the left, striking a utility pole and several garbage cans.
The vehicle came to a stop near Pacific Place. Another officer advised that he had Troyer in custody. The first officer saw a pistol on the floorboard near the gas pedal, which was taken as evidence.
An officer brought Troyer back to the scene, and he "began advising me that he had been out drinking since it is his birthday. He openly made the statement that he was heavily intoxicated. I could smell a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from Troyer as he spoke and observed his eyes appeared to be watery and glassy."
Troyer said he had an altercation at a tavern on Tod Avenue in Warren Township, and he ended up with an unknown man's gun, and the gun was somewhere in his truck. He said several times that he was intoxicated.
While searching the truck, the officer found a sandwich bag containing unknown orange pills that were collected as potential evidence, the report states. Troyer said he would submit to a breath test, which was done at the Ohio State Highway Patrol barracks in Southington. Troyer's blood-alcohol level was 0.14, almost twice the legal limit to drive in Ohio of 0.08.
Troyer admitted to having done a "line of coke" and said he was on probation for a conviction in Portage County, which was confirmed by the officer. The pills were going to be tested to determine whether they were illegal to possess, the report states.