Testimony began Tuesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court in the jury trial of Hillary Farr, charged for attempting to strike a police cruiser during a chase through the streets of Lima in September of last year. After less than an hour of deliberations jurors found Farr guilty of felonious assault and failure to comply with the order or signal of a peace officer.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A Dayton man who led Lima police on a high-speed chase through residential areas of the city in September was convicted by an Allen County jury Tuesday of two felonies, including a felonious assault charge based on his attempt to injure a police officer with his vehicle.
Jurors in the one-day trial were seated Tuesday morning and later that afternoon, following less than an hour of deliberations, had returned their verdicts.
The state of Ohio called just two witnesses — both patrol officers with the Lima Police Department — who testified that Hillary Farr, 38, ignored officers’ attempts to execute a traffic stop in the early-morning hours of Sept. 4 of last year and instead led police on a chase through residential areas at speeds exceeding 50 miles per hour at times.
Attorney Carroll Creighton of the Allen County Public Defenders Office said there was little doubt that Farr had committed the offense of the failure to stop for the order or signal of a police officer, a third-degree felony.
Creighton, however, disputed the allegation made by Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Kyle Thines that Farr did during the pursuit “knowingly” swerve his vehicle in the direction of Lima police officer Zachary Carpenter with the intent to cause physical harm to the officer, the state’s basis for a charge of felonious assault.
Thines played for jurors cruiser camera footage that showed Farr’s vehicle swerve in the direction of Carpenter’s oncoming patrol car on Greenlawn Avenue. Creighton, however, said that act alone did not fulfill the legal definition necessary to convict Farr of a charge of the first-degree felony.
“If he (Farr) wanted to culminate that offense he absolutely could have,” Creighton said. “But he swerved back” away from Carpenter.
“I believe that once you (jurors) view the videos — and I urge you to look at them again — you will conclude that there is reasonable doubt that my client ‘knowingly’ attempted to cause physical harm to the officer,” the defense attorney said.
Jurors reached a different conclusion.
Lima police officer Mikel Martinez testified that Farr led him westbound on First Street to northbound Greenlawn Avenue after ignoring the officer’s attempt to pull him over for a minor traffic violation. He said Farr ran a stop sign at West Vine Street while traveling in excess of 50 mph, then nearly struck Carpenter’s marked police cruiser while traveling north on Greenlawn Avenue. Farr’s vehicle then entered Town Alley, traveling in the wrong direction on that roadway, and his vehicle flipped as it turned onto North Shore Drive. Farr was ejected from the vehicle, which then rolled on top of him.
He was transported to Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Medical Center and upon his release was arrested. Farr had been wanted for violating his parole on a robbery charge, for which he was released from prison in March of 2022.
He will be sentenced on the latest charges on Feb. 15.
