Deveon Hall, seated next to attorney Carroll Creighton, was found guilty of felonious assault and domestic violence but not guilty of abduction by an Allen County jury at the conclusion of a two-day jury trial Friday. Hall was also found guilty of a three-year firearm specification included in the felonious assault charge.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Jurors in the Allen County Common Pleas Court trial of Deveon Hall deliberated for less than an hour Friday before finding the Lima man guilty of felonious assault and domestic violence but not guilty of a felony count of abduction. The panel also convicted Hall of a three-year firearm specification attached to the felonious assault charge.
Final testimony in the two-day trial came Friday morning from two officers from the Lima Police Department — Patrolman Kylie Archer and Patrolman Roger Lybarger — who told jurors Hall jumped out a window of a Brower Road apartment building when police attempted to enter the apartment where an assault had allegedly occurred. Those officers and others pursued Hall, tackled him to the ground and took him into custody.
Angela Roldan on Thursday testified that Hall physically assaulted her after the pair got into an argument at her apartment on the morning of Jan. 7. Roldan said Hall struck her in the eye, causing swelling and bruising which were evident in police photos shown to jurors. She said the physical altercation continued.
“I cussed him out,” she said, “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. I tried to leave but he wouldn’t allow it.”
Roldan also said she and Hall were in a romantic relationship that was seemingly falling apart on the day in question and that she was pregnant with his child.
She said after Hall threatened her with the gun he laid the weapon on her dresser and left the room, at which time Roldan threw the pistol out her bedroom window. The woman said she left the apartment when Hall later fell asleep and retrieved the handgun before going to a friend’s house to call police.
In his closing statement to jurors, Carroll Creighton from the Allen County Public Defenders Office said prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hall had caused Roldan’s injuries or that he had detained her illegally.
The defense attorney pointed to what he said were inconsistencies in Roldan’s testimony.
“She had no clear timeline of the events she said happened. Her testimony was very confusing. There was no mention of a gun until prosecutors asked her about it. When was she hit? How did her face get cut? Where was her phone during this time?
“The prosecutors said during jury selection that the testimony of one witness ‘if believed by you’ is sufficient to prove a fact,” Creighton said. “(The state) had one witness, and I submit to you that she cannot be believed.”
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Thines said Creighton was focusing on trivial discrepancies and inconsequential tidbits in an attempt to discredit Roldan’s story and to divert jurors’ attention from the evidence presented during the trial. He called on jurors to use “common sense and reason” and return guilty verdicts against Hall.
“What is the victim’s motive to lie?” he asked, rhetorically.
A sentencing hearing for Hall will be held at a later date.
