Jan. 8—LIMA — Testimony concluded Wednesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court as the jury trial of Lima resident Keith Malloy wrapped up its second day.
Closing arguments are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and jurors will begin deliberations later in the morning.
Malloy, 45, is charged with aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony with a repeat violent offender specification, and a single count of strangulation, a felony of the third degree.
Prosecutors say that on April 29 of last year, Malloy forcibly entered an occupied structure and strangled the mother of his child.
Testifying as the state’s first witness on Tuesday was the alleged victim in the case. Clarrissa Dewitt-Campbell, 32, told jurors that on that evening, she was attacked in her own home in the 1000 block of Richie Avenue in Lima by Malloy, whom she had dated casually and with whom she shares a young child. Campbell said Malloy, while under the influence of alcohol, kicked her front door open and placed his hands on her “aggressively.”
“He had one hand over my mouth, from behind, and the other hand was on my head. He lifted me up so that my feet were off the ground. He was choking me. I couldn’t breathe,” the woman told jurors.
Among those taking the witness stand Wednesday was Lima Police Department Detective Jesse Harrod, the lead investigator in the case. His testimony centered around five phone calls made by Malloy from the Allen County jail following his arrest and were a point of contention with defense attorneys.
Allen County Assistant Public Defender Megan McLean objected to the admission of the taped phone calls, claiming a lack of relevance. Following a lengthy lunch break, during which Judge Terri Kohlrieser listened to the recordings, some redactions were ordered before the contents of the tapes were heard by jurors.
Harrod said four of the five calls, which amount to a mere fraction of the estimated “hundreds” of phone calls made by Malloy leading up to trial, were made to Audrey Austin, who was described as a person with whom Malloy had been involved in a “romantic relationship.” In one call Austin asked Malloy, “What were you thinking?”
The Lima man answered, “I just lost my cool.”
Harrod testified that Malloy, during his conversations with Austin, contradicted several statements he had made to investigators during the case. The Lima man had claimed he went to Dewitt-Campbell’s home in April because he loved her and wanted to be with her.
“But in his phone calls with Audrey Austin, Mr. Malloy said he was in the process of breaking up with the light-skinned girl” (Dewitt-Campbell) at the time of the alleged incident, the detective said.
Austin was one of just two defense witnesses called to testify but shed little light on their relationship or Malloy’s actions on April 29.
According to court documents, Malloy was on post-release control at the time of the alleged offenses after serving 20 years in prison in a 2004 case after he pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
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