Teir Pitts pleaded guilty to a felonious assault charge for assaulting a corrections officer Monday.
Charlotte Caldwell | The Lima News
LIMA — As his jury trial was set to begin Monday in the Allen County Common Pleas Court, a Lima man pleaded guilty to the felonious assault charge he was indicted on for assaulting a corrections officer.
The charge Teir Pitts, 33, pleaded to also carries a repeat violent offender specification, but the plea deal specified an agreement of 10 years in prison with no sentence on the specification.
A pre-sentence investigation will be conducted, and Pitts will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7.
The incident occurred in the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution on Nov. 8, 2023. Pitts previously argued self-defense in handwritten motions he sent to the court. He said a corrections officer told him to get in his cell, and he said, “Make me.”
Pitts went into his cell, and the officer followed. Pitts asked the officer if he wanted to fight, and Pitts said the officer said “this ain’t what you want,” and the officer “came towards me in a menacing manner, and I struck him once out of fear,” Pitts wrote.
Pitts wrote he didn’t intend to harm the officer and has no history of assault in the nearly 10 years he’s been incarcerated.
“He was not to enter my cell but only secure the door,” Pitts wrote, as he said an officer entering cells violated jail policy.
Pitts punched the officer in the mouth and broke his tooth, causing him to need a crown. Pitts also needed medical attention after the officer’s tooth cut his hand.
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
