The jury trial for Patrick Kollars ended in a mistrial Tuesday. He faces charges of felonious assault, endangering children and strangulation.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A jury trial ended in a mistrial Tuesday for a Lima man facing charges of felonious assault, endangering children and strangulation after an alleged incident that left his 17-year-old son blind.
On Monday, the first day of the trial in Allen County Common Pleas Court, Patrick Kollars’ son testified. At the end of the day after Kollars’ son stepped down from the stand, an issue arose because Kollars’ son was never sworn in before testifying.
Judge Terri Kohlrieser wanted to bring the son back to the stand Tuesday to swear him in and ask him questions about the truthfulness of his answers the day before. Another option was to have the son testify again, but that might not have been fair to the defense, as jurors would hear the story twice. Instead, Kollars’ attorneys requested a mistrial, and the prosecution had no objection.
A new trial date has not yet been set.
Kollars’ son’s testimony Monday included the events that occurred Sept. 10, 2023, and the hardships he faced in his life.
He was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome — where the left side of his heart didn’t develop properly — and Peters anomaly — causing a cloudy area in his eyes in the center of his corneas. He has received multiple open heart and eye surgeries due to these conditions.
At around 6 years old, he lost the vision in his right eye due to an accident involving an object that poked his eye, causing him to rely on his left eye, which had limited vision due to his condition. Another tribulation came in 2022 when his mom died from cancer.
On Sept. 10, Kollars, 46, went into his son’s room to give him some laundry. His son testified he was on his phone and admitted he was doing things Kollars didn’t approve of, such as using the messaging app Discord. He said his father previously told him not to use certain apps after what Kollars considered inappropriate behavior online. When he tried to shut the apps down and lie about what he was doing, Kollars grabbed the phone. As Kollars later told police, he “lost it” and allegedly started to smack his son in the face.
Testimony revealed at one point Kollars and his son left the son’s room, and when Kollars brought his son back into the room he dragged him with one arm around his neck and one arm around his waist and threw him on his bed. Kollars continued to smack his son until his son said he heard a pop from his eye, which was his eye rupturing, causing fluids to erupt from his eye and his vision to fade away.
Kollars’ son said Kollars asked if he was blind then started praying and saying he was going to kill himself before calling 911.
Kollars’ son recalled going to the hospital in an ambulance and having the paramedics ask him what happened. He told the paramedics it was an accident and that he was worried about Kollars. He said he also told Kollars to lie about what happened.
“I had all five stages of grief going through me at the same time,” Kollars’ son said while testifying.
Eventually he told the story which he told in court Monday.
Allen County Sheriff’s Office Dispatcher Jill Steinbrenner also testified Monday, and Kollars’ call to 911 was played for the jury.
In opening statements, Assistant Prosecutor Colleen Limerick said Kollars was vague in the call about how the injury occurred, even when Steinbrenner could be heard asking Kollars multiple times what caused the injury so she could give more information to paramedics.
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
