WARREN - A jury declined to find a defendant guilty of a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault, instead taking less than an hour to find the Masury man guilty of felonious assault.
Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Rice revoked bond for 33-year-old Richard Ashley Williams, who had been free on $25,000 bond but who will now wait in Trumbull County Jail before being sentenced at a later date.
Williams, of West Columbia Street, faces two to eight years behind bars for what jurors found was deliberately breaking the wrist of a neighbor woman who was trying to break up a fight between the defendant and his mother.
Williams, who wore a blouse, high-heeled shoes and large hoop earrings and carried a purse into court on Monday, testified on his own behalf Tuesday, telling jurors that even though he argued with his mother over the whereabouts of his laptop computer, he never intended to hurt the neighbor, Sheila Brakeman.
He told jurors that he was trying to move away from the woman when she lost her balance and fell.
Attorney Thad Wexler, who represented Williams, was up front with jurors during the selection process, informing the panel that his client was gay.
Assistant county prosecutor Michael Burnett brought up the fact that Williams had a prior felony record - a fifth-degree felony breaking and entering conviction.
The defendant admitted that he drank three beers, then two more 24-ounce beers along with two Vicodin, before going to the Columbia Street address and arguing with his mother, waking up several neighbors in the process on Oct. 8, 2011.