Testimony began Monday in Allen County Common Pleas Court in the trial of Ja’naz Smith, 18, of Lima, charged with murder in the January 2020 shooting death of Danielle Jackson behind Pappy’s bar in Lima.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A jury trial for Ja’Naz Smith, one of two Lima juveniles charged with murder in the January 2020 shooting death of Danielle Jackson, got underway Monday in Allen County Common Pleas Court.
Jackson, 44, died hours after being shot — once in the chest, once in the abdomen and twice in the back — in the early morning hours of Jan. 20, 2020, behind Pappy’s Lounge, located at 1000 W. North St. in Lima.
The first witnesses on Monday included a bar patron on the night in question, another man who came to the bar at closing time to pick up a friend and a former Lima police officer who identified a male captured on a home surveillance camera near the bar as Smith.
Brad Clum testified that he came to the bar at around 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 20 to pick up a friend. Upon turning into Pappy’s parking lot a male ran east from the lot and headed northbound on Charles Street, he said. He described the individual as a Black male wearing a black hoodie and sweat pants with a white stripe down the legs.
Clum also testified that a man standing near the back door of Pappy’s was “kinda wobbling around” and eventually fell face down on the pavement. He called 911 and then attempted to offer aid to the man, who was learned to be Jackson.
Asked by Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Mariah Cunningham if the man said anything, Clum testified that he “said there were two of them; he said they robbed him and there were two of them.”
Samuel Crish, who at the time was a patrolman with the Lima Police Department, arrived at the bar as Jackson lay outside. He said said the wounded man answered “I don’t know,” when Crish asked who had shot him.
Crish also testified that he had assisted another officer and his K-9 unit in attempting to track footprints leading from the bar. The footprints ended on the 900 block of West Wayne Street, where Crish surmises the suspects were picked up by a motorist.
The police officer also identified Smith, now 18 years of age, as one of two males shown in a home surveillance video taken the night of the murder from a residence on Charles Street.
Smith and Jordan Daniel, both 15 at the time, were indicted by a grand jury in January of 2021 on charges of aggravated murder with a firearm specification; two counts of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification; and tampering with evidence in connection with Jackson’s death.
Daniel was tried in juvenile court and stood trial in early November that year and was found guilty of all charges. Juvenile Court Judge Todd Kohlrieser sentenced Daniel in two phases: doling out adult penalties as well as juvenile sentences. On the aggravated murder charge, Daniel was sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life, with the possibility of parole, as an adult. The prison term for murder count was set aside and will not be served, Kohlrieser told Daniel, “unless you commit a violent offense during your time at a Department of Youth Services facility.”
Daniel was ordered to be held in custody by Ohio Department of Youth Services until he reaches the age of 21.
During a recorded interview with Lima Police Department Detective Todd Jennings played for jurors during Daniel’s trial, Daniels said Smith initiated the incident.
“We was just walking and he (Smith) saw the dude and walked up to him,” Daniel told Jennings during the interview. “I was with him. When he shot, I really didn’t want to shoot. I had a revolver and I did shoot once or twice,” the teenager said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
