Deontray Forrest, charged with the murder of Timothy White outside Levels bar on Feb. 4, 2020, took the witness stand Wednesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court in his own defense. His testimony is expected to continue throughout the day on Thursday.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Deontray Forrest, charged with murder in the shooting death of Timothy White outside Levels bar in downtown Lima more than three years ago, took the witness stand in his own defense Wednesday as his jury trial entered its final phase.
The Lima man is expected to be on the stand throughout most or all of Thursday’s proceedings.
Defense attorney James Owen began his direct questioning of Forrest by eliciting details of the events of Feb. 4, 2020, the morning when three persons were shot and killed in or just outside Levels Lounge. The direct examination proceeded at a slow pace as Owen went through surveillance video footage of the night in question at nearly a frame-by-frame pace.
The state rested its case mid-afternoon on Wednesday after jurors heard testimony from Lima Police Department detectives Steve Stechschulte and Sean Neidemire. The panel also watched hours of surveillance video taken from inside and outside Levels Lounge and from the adjacent CASA building on the morning of Feb. 4, 2020.
The videos traced the timeline of events that took place inside the bar and in a parking lot and alley/pathway just west of the establishment. Jurors saw video that depicted:
• Timothy White shoot Devontae Upshaw and his own brother, Terell McGraw, just inside the front door of the bar;
• White immediately exit the bar after the shooting, at which time a window at the front of the establishment was shattered by a bullet from a gun reportedly fired by Forrest;
• Forrest leave the bar shortly behind White with a pistol in his right hand;
• White walk briskly in the parking lot just west of Levels Lounge and then enter the adjacent walkway toward Main Street;
• Forrest aim a gun in White’s direction, with the muzzle flash of several shots evident on film;
• At least two muzzle flashes, indicating a weapon being fired from the walkway in Forrest’s direction; and
• Forest re-entering the bar and running into the men’s restroom, where he reportedly attempted to hide the firearm in a trash can.
Jurors also watched a brief interrogation video conducted at the Lima Police Department by Stechschulte and Neidemire, during with both detectives urged Forrest to admit his role in the shooting. He had previously denied an knowledge of the incident.
“You said you didn’t kill anybody, but that don’t work,” Neidemire told Forrest. “It’s all on video.”
Stechschulte testified that Forrest told investigators he was drunk at the time of the shooting.
White’s body was found lying face down in the walkway outside Levels. He had been shot in the chest.
Owen, in his opening statements to jurors on Monday, admitted that the 27-year-old Forrest shot White. The attorney said his client acted in self-defense.
Forrest is charged with two counts of murder, which are unclassified felonies, along with a second-degree felony charge of felonious assault that includes gang and firearm specifications.
Testimony in the trial begins at 9 a.m. Thursday.
