Jan. 9—LIMA — “I had to protect myself,” a Lima man said during testimony Wednesday in his jury trial on a felonious assault charge.
According to a narrative from Lima Police Detective Sgt. Steven Stechschulte provided in court documents and his testimony, on May 6 around 12:45 a.m., a man, who was identified in the trial as Roger Saylor, “showed up at Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Medical Center with heavy trauma to his face, and he was heavily bleeding from lacerations above his right eye and on the front, left side of the head,” Stechschulte wrote.
Saylor said he was assaulted by Randy Stephenson, 57, in a church parking lot at 1103 W. Spring St. The parking lot is behind 220 S. Cole St., where Stephenson lived with his estranged wife, Danielle Laman-Stephenson.
Saylor and Laman-Stephenson were involved in a romantic relationship, testimony revealed. Laman-Stephenson and Saylor went to the residence so she could get items from the house and money from Stephenson, and they pulled into the church parking lot so there were no issues between the two men, Saylor said.
Stephenson allegedly opened the door to the car while Laman-Stephenson was in the house and started assaulting Saylor by strangling and punching him and hitting him with a gun. The man received nine stitches in his head.
Stephenson said Laman-Stephenson’s ex-boyfriend called Stephenson about a month before the incident to warn him that he was jumped and robbed by Laman-Stephenson and Saylor, which led him to believe he was also being robbed by the pair. He also saw a Facebook post alleging Laman-Stephenson and Saylor were robbing people and said the post can still be viewed to this day.
“He reached out for my wallet and said ‘just give me the (expletive) money,'” Stephenson said about Saylor in
in the Allen County Common Pleas Court.
Assistant Prosecutor Josh Carp said Stephenson fled from the scene because he went back to his house, and he moved Laman-Stephenson’s car into the driveway, which Carp said could show Stephenson’s consciousness of guilt. Body camera footage was also shown of officers arriving at Stephenson’s house shortly after the incident and knocking on the door with no response.
Testimony revealed the gun Stephenson used in the incident turned out to be a BB gun, and it was broken and wouldn’t fire. Stephenson knew it wouldn’t fire but didn’t know it was a BB gun, according to Stechschulte. Stechschulte said the gun felt heavy like a real gun and was made to look like a real revolver.
Stechschulte said no DNA testing was done because they knew the blood found was Saylor’s. He said detectives also didn’t get video footage of the parking lot where the incident occurred because the detective assigned to retrieve it from a nearby building was off work for a while due to an accident, and the footage was overwritten when he came back. No medical records were retrieved for trial because of a problem with filling out forms at the hospital, Stechschulte said.
Laman-Stephenson didn’t testify because police couldn’t find her to serve her a subpoena.
Stephenson’s attorney, Kenneth Rexford, said if the incident cannot be considered self-defense, then he would argue for a lesser charge of aggravated assault, rather than felonious assault.
The trial will wrap up with closing arguments and jury deliberation Thursday.
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
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