Julian Wright, charged with aggravated burglary and domestic violence, talks with his attorney prior to his jury trial which began Monday in Allen County Common Pleas Court.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Testimony began Monday in the trial of a Lima man who prosecutors say forcibly entered the home of a woman with whom he shares a daughter and threatened her with physical harm.
Julian Wright, who turned 26 on Sunday, was indicted by a grand jury in March of 2022 on charges of aggravated burglary, a felony of the first degree, and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence.
Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Josh Carp told jurors that Wright went to the Woodlawn Avenue home of Kaitlin Russell in the early-morning hours of Jan. 22, 2022, and used a brick to break her front door before attempting to open the door. Carp said the defendant also made threatening statements to the woman.
Defense attorney Chima Ekeh said the state overreacted by charging his client with a first-degree felony crime. “We are here today because Julian Wright damaged Ms. Russell’s front door. It’s a case of damaged property and nothing more, yet the state elected to throw the kitchen sink at him,” Ekeh told jurors.
Russell took the witness stand as the state’s first witness and told jurors that on the morning of Jan. 22, 2022, she was awakened in her upstairs bedroom by a loud noise coming from the front door.
She testified that Wright, who was homeless during that time, and had stayed at her apartment twice earlier that week. She said she and Wright had exchanged a series of text messages on the night of Jan. 21 and into the early morning hours of Jan. 22 during which he asked if he could come to her home again to spend the night.
Russell told jurors she lied to Wright when she texted him saying she had some friends coming over. On the witness stand the woman said she lied because she knew Wright had purchased alcohol earlier in the evening.
“I didn’t want him coming back to my apartment and being drunk around my daughter,” the woman said.
She testified that at approximately 2:40 a.m. on the night in question she called 911 after hearing a “loud banging on the front door.” She told jurors that when she ran downstairs and looked through the curtains she saw Wright holding a brick and then saw him reach his arm through a hole in the door in an attempt to unlock a dead bolt. She testified that Wright told her through the door as she was on the phone with dispatchers to “get off the phone with police or he would hit me with the brick.”
Jurors listened to the 911 dispatch call in which Russell said claimed Wright was “drunk and belligerent” and had “just kicked the door in.”
Russell said under cross-examination by Ekeh that she did not actually see Wright throw a brick through her door or kick the door as she had told the 911 dispatcher and agreed that no threats were heard on the emergency call.
Many of the defense attorney’s questions to Russell were greeted with objections from prosecutors and an “asked and answered” admonishment from Judge Terri Kohlrieser.
Testimony in the trial will continue Tuesday morning.
