Lima police officer Blake VanVorce shows jurors the weapon that was recovered following a domestic violence incident in January at an apartment complex on Brower Road.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Jurors in the trial of a Lima man accused of striking his one-time girlfriend and pressing a gun against her head heard from the alleged victim as testimony got underway Thursday in Allen County Common Pleas Court.
Angela Roldan told jurors that after she got into a verbal argument with Deveon Hall at her apartment on Brower Road in Lima on the morning of Jan. 7 of this year, the incident turned physical.
Roldan, who testified she was pregnant with Hall’s child at the time, said that after the initial argument on that day she believed her relationship with Hall had ended. She said she left the apartment to allow Hall time to remove his personal belongings and returned several hours later — after being stopped by police for suspicion of driving while intoxicated — to find Hall outside her apartment.
Hall was permitted to come into the apartment, Roldan testified, and it was at that time that he “started saying some offensive stuff.” The argument intensified to the point that Roldan said she “punched” a television owned by Hall. In response, the woman said, Hall “punched me in the eye,” causing swelling and bruising that were evident in police photos shown to jurors.
“I cussed him out and he pushed me, grabbed me and slapped me in my face. Then he got his gun, cocked it and held it against my head,” she testified. “I tried to leave but he wouldn’t allow it.”
Roldan said Hall later laid the gun on her dresser and left the room, giving her time to throw the weapon out her bedroom window.
The woman said she was able to leave the apartment when Hall later fell asleep. She testified that she left her apartment, went outside to retrieve the handgun she had thrown from the window, and went to a friend’s house to call police.
Supporting her earlier testimony was Lima Police Department Patrolman Blake VanVorce, who said that upon his arrival at the Brower Road apartment he saw a man, later found to be Hall, jump out of a window in the complex. VanVorce gave chase, tackled Hall and placed him under arrest.
Hall, 35, was indicted by a grand jury in February on charges of felonious assault, a second-degree felony that includes a firearm specification, as well as single counts of abduction and domestic violence, third- and fifth-degree felonies, respectively.
Testimony in the trial will resume Friday morning.
