Cartwright
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Jurors in the case of Jacquavious Cartwright, charged with brutally assaulting his former girlfriend over the course of three days at a Union Street residence last summer, got an early break on Wednesday when the Lima man’s trial was halted for the day at noon.
Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed said the trial was being temporarily suspended to allow the defendant to attend the funeral of a close family member. Testimony will resume at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Cartwright, 35, faces charges of felonious assault and kidnapping, felonies of the second- and third-degree, respectively. He is also charged with the illegal cultivation of marijuana and the possession of cocaine, fifth-degree felonies. Prosecutors allege Cartwright caused serious physical harm to Lane Riley, his ex-girlfriend, between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22 of last year at his home on South Union Street in Lima.
Riley sobbed often throughout her testimony Tuesday as the state’s opening witness, describing how Cartwright repeatedly beat her, drug her around by her hair, struck her with a closed fist and twice fired a handgun in her direction after striking her in the face with it. The abuse, Riley told jurors, began in the early-morning hours of Aug. 19 and continued for three days after Cartwright accused her of being unfaithful in their relationship.
“He was punching me, kicking me. He stomped on my ribs and punched me everywhere. It went on for hours,” Riley told jurors, adding that Cartwright had taken her car keys, phone and wallet away from her.
“He said he was going to kill me. He had a gun in his hand and was waving it in my face. I thought I was about to die,” Riley said, sobbing uncontrollably at times. “I thought I’d never see my kids or grandkids again. He said he was going to send me home in a body bag.”
As the trial resumed on Wednesday, Gregory Adkins, an identification officer with the Lima Police Department, narrated for jurors more than three dozen photos of evidence collected at the South Union Street residence. That evidence included one live bullet, two spent shell casings, a pistol magazine with 12 live rounds inside, a 9mm handgun, a small amount of what proved to be crack cocaine, multiple marijuana plants and a digital scale with white powder on it.
Also testifying were two employees of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation who performed scientific analysis of some of the evidence collected at the crime scene.
The forensic examiners testified that the suspect drugs collected by LPD investigators were indeed cocaine and marijuana, and that the spent cartridges were a likely match with the 9 mm Luger semi-automatic pistol sent for analysis.
Josh Bayer, at the time an assistant team leader on the West Central Ohio Crime Task Force’s SWAT team, testified that Cartwright initially refused to leave his residence when police first arrived at the South Union Street residence but eventually exited and was taken into custody without incident when the task force arrived on scene.
At the end of testimony on Wednesday prosecutors were uncertain if they would call additional witnesses.
