Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas General Division today sentenced Owen Wyne to over 14 years in prison on his convictions on two drive-by shooting specifications, two counts of improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation or school safety zone, felonies of the second degree, and one count of attempted trespass, a felony of the fourth degree.
 
The sentence was jointly recommended to the Court by Logan County Prosecutor Eric Steward and Wyne's defense counsel, Madison Mackay, of Columbus, Ohio.
 
The offenses occurred on August 14, 2023. On that date, Wyne traveled by car with others to the homes of persons that he believed had been unsympathetic to the death of one of his friends. Wyne discharged a Black Hi-Point CF380 firearm, and the bullets entered two homes, one in Bellefontaine and one in Washington Township in the Indian Lake area. No physical injuries to any occupants of the homes resulted from the shootings.
 
The Family Division of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas bound him over to the General Division on October 15, 2024. In doing so, Judge Kim Kellogg-Martin found that Wyne "glamorize[d] a criminal lifestyle."
 
At the sentencing hearing, Wyne admitted that his actions were wrong. "I thought it made you cool, but it doesn't. It makes you a coward," Wyne said.

​Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas today sentenced Gary A. Doseck to 14 to 18 years in prison on two counts of illegal manufacture of drugs, felonies of the second degree, and two counts of trafficking in cocaine.
 
The Court found that the offenses of illegal manufacture of drugs and trafficking in cocaine were committed as part of organized crime. Chapter 177 of the Ohio Revised Code governing investigation and prosecution of organized crime defines organized criminal activity to include any violation of the prohibition on drug trafficking. In addition, the facts and information contained in the pre-sentence investigation report clearly demonstrated Doseck was involved in organized crime when he manufactured illegal drugs, including crack cocaine.
 
“This is a business,” Judge Braig said in response to Doseck’s claim that he only sold drugs to obtain drugs for his own use. “People go into this business to make money. That is what happened here.”
 
Logan County Prosecutor Nathan Yohey represented the State of Ohio and recommended a full maximum sentence of 18 to 22 years in prison. Defense counsel Katherin Memsic of Columbus recommended a sentence of less than 10 years.

​Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas today sentenced Brandy N. Durnell to 5 to 7.5 years in prison on her convictions of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a felony of the second degree, and seven counts of breaking and entering, felonies of the fifth degree. Some of the offenses arose out of thefts that occurred after the tornado that struck Lakeview, Ohio, in March of 2024. Other offenses were the result of thefts from storage facilities prior to the tornado. Judge Braig previously sentenced Durnell’s co-defendants, Jeffrey Rivers and Edward Langley, to identical prison terms of 5 to 7.5 years.
 
In handing down the sentence Judge Braig considered the purposes and principles of felony sentencing. He found that Durnell’s offenses were committed as part of organized crime and that the victims suffered significant economic loss. The pre-sentence investigation report showed Durnell sold stolen items in yard sales and on Facebook Marketplace. Logan County Assistant Prosecutor Nathan Yohey represented the State of Ohio and provided recorded calls Durnell had with Langley while Langley was in the Logan County Jail that showed Durnell was an active participant in the organized crime ring. He recommended the Court sentence Durnell to the same prison terms Rivers and Langley received.
 
“You actively participated in a criminal business that victimized innocent people who were already victims of a natural disaster,” Judge Braig said. “Your conduct was calculated and predatory.”
 
Defense counsel Addie King of Urbana, Ohio represented Durnell.

Logan County Court of Common Pleas Judge Kevin P. Braig today sentenced Audric D. Clay to a maximum prison sentence of 12.5 to 18 years on convictions of possession of cocaine, a felony of the first degree, trafficking in cocaine, a felony of the fifth degree, and carrying a concealed weapon, a felony of the fourth degree.
 
Logan County Assistant Prosecutor Erin Rosen represented the State of Ohio at the hearing. On behalf of the State, she recommended a 10-year prison sentence. Defense counsel Griff Nowicki of Dayton, Ohio, recommended a sentence of 5-to-7 years.
 
On October 19, 2023, Logan County Sheriff’s Office deputies pursued Clay as he fled in a motor vehicle. During the pursuit, Clay threw almost 100 grams of cocaine and almost 14-grams of xylazine/fentanyl from his motor vehicle. DNA on a backpack that contained the drugs was consistent with Clay’s DNA. Clay’s vehicle came to rest in a cornfield and Clay fled on foot, evading officers.
 
According to the pre-sentence investigation report, officers also recovered a 9 mm Taurus handgun that Clay threw from the vehicle and a loaded 9 mm Helwan firearm that was found inside the vehicle.
 
“The facts in this case are almost identical to the facts of some of the most serious possession and trafficking cases that have come before this Court during the past five years,” Judge Braig told Clay. “Your criminal history is also extensive. You have left the Court no choice but to impose the stiffest penalty it is permitted to impose under Ohio law.”

During his time in ARC, Hill started his own business and worked diligently satisfy his obligation to make restitution for his offenses.
 
“What stood out about Julie and Greg was their willingness to take personal responsibility for the consequences of their past actions,” Judge Braig said. “The treatment team worked hard with them to develop plans to address and satisfy their obligations. They did so without making excuses or resisting. Recovery is hard. Cleaning up after yourself is hard. They excelled in both areas. I think they both have bright futures.”
 
The ARC treatment team works within the framework of the traditional Logan County Common Pleas Court.  The ARC’s mission is to achieve specific, rehabilitative objectives. The objectives of the ARC are to monitor treatment for substance abuse disorder of ARC participants, encourage and incentivize ARC participants to achieve rehabilitation and personal accountability, and decrease criminal activity and the need for incarceration.
 
The ARC provides its participants with the support of Judge Braig, Treatment Coordinator and Program Manager Annette Deao, Compliance Officers Jim Pleasant, Mandy Wilber, and Gary Ledford, Logan County Jail liaisons Doug Boggs and Amber Pickford, and treatment providers from TCN Behavioral Health Services, Community Health Wellness, the Justice Reinvestment Grant, Logan County Assistant Prosecutor Erin Rosen, local attorneys Natalie Bahan and Greg Harvey, and others.  The members of the ARC Team share the  goals of: (1) empowering ARC participants through treatment, accountability, and responsibility, (2) assisting ARC participants in achieving recovery from substance abuse disorder, and (3) helping ARC participants lead useful and productive lives.

Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas today sentenced Steven Fulmer Jr. to 25-years-to-life in prison on his convictions of seven counts of rape, felonies of the first degree, and one count of gross sexual imposition, a felony of the third degree.

According to the pre-sentence investigation report, Fulmer continues to maintain his innocence. During the hearing, Judge Braig asked Fulmer if he wished to address the Court and Fulmer informed Judge Braig that he did not wish to do so.

Logan County Prosecutor Eric Stewart represented the State of Ohio. Collin Thomas of Columbus, Ohio, represented Fulmer.

​Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas today acquitted Marcus Cobb on two charges of assaulting a police officer and two charges of obstructing official business because the State of Ohio failed to produced evidence upon which a rational juror could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Cobb committed the offenses.
 
“In this case,” Judge Braig wrote, “even after construing the facts in a light most favorable to the State of Ohio (the State), the undisputed evidence the State produced at trial shows that two Bellefontaine Police Department (BPD) officers physically pulled a citizen, Defendant Marcus Cobb (Defendant Cobb), who had committed no crime whatsoever, from a motor vehicle, refused to tell him they had a warrant, and beat him up and tased him.  Defendant Cobb did not know that a civil—not criminal—warrant existed. He asked the officers five times why they wanted him to get out of the vehicle and two times if he had a warrant. Each time the officers snubbed him.  Instead of responding to Defendant Cobb’s reasonable and relevant questions and telling him that they indeed had a warrant, the officers physically grabbed him and in Defendant Cobb’s words ‘rag-dolled’ him when he resisted. The State contends that not only is the officers’ conduct acceptable police conduct, but also Defendant Cobb is guilty of assaulting the police officers and obstructing official business when he resisted their physical violation of his person. The Court disagrees.”
 
A Logan County jury convicted Mr. Cobb of the offenses on August 22, 2024. However, as authorized by the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure, Judge Braig reserved his decision on Mr. Cobb’s motion for acquittal. In granting the motion, Judge Braig set aside the convictions and discharged Mr. Cobb and ordered the State to pay the costs.
 
The events that gave rise to the indictment occurred on December 30, 2023. At around 2:47 AM that morning BPD Officer Andrew Purk recognized Mr. Cobb in the passenger seat of a motor vehicle driven by Teaira Stine. Officer Purk stopped Ms. Stine when she failed to use a turn signal. But Officer Purk did not tell Mr. Cobb he had a warrant. He called for backup and Officer Blake Kenner II arrived. The officers then went to the passenger door and demanded Mr. Cobb exit the vehicle. Mr. Cobb refused and asked if they had a warrant. The officers refused to answer his question, grabbed him, and slammed him onto the ground on his back. From a prone position, Mr. Cobb struck Officer Kenner II twice in the face, once with a closed hand and once with an open hand. Defendant Kenner II then delivered a “head-turner” punch to Mr. Cobb that bloodied Mr. Cobb’s face and sent him to the hospital. Officer Kenner II also tased Mr. Cobb. Hours later, Officer Purk complained of pain in one of his hands. Judge Braig found the State produced insufficient evidence for a rational juror to find Mr. Cobb bit Officer Purk as the State claimed.
 
Judge Braig reviewed the video of the incident recorded by the officers at the scene and ordered a transcript of the testimony given at trial to craft his 59-page decision.
 
The officers never told Mr. Cobb he was under arrest until after they physically subdued him for failing to exit the vehicle. The State did not charge Mr. Cobb with resisting arrest. But the State failed to produce evidence upon which a rational juror could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Cobb did anything more than resist.
 
“The State disdained charging Defendant Cobb with resisting arrest,” Judge Braig wrote. “But the State’s disdain for the resisting charges does not automatically entitle the State to have the jury decide its assault charges. Resistance is defensive conduct.  In contrast, assault is offensive conduct.  Assault is an attack. Resistance is defending against an attack. That is why resisting arrest is not a lesser included offense of assault of a police officer…. Because the State did not charge Defendant Cobb with resisting arrest, the State must produce evidence upon which a rational juror could distinguish beyond a reasonable doubt intent reflective of offensive assaultive force from intent reflective of defensive resistant force…. [T]he State plainly failed to do so.”
 
Judge Braig concluded that the officers’ conduct  violated Mr. Cobb’s constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
 
Under the Fourth Amendment, it is “well-established … that a non-violent, non-resisting, or only passively resisting suspect who is not under arrest has a right to be free from an officer’s use of force,” Judge Braig wrote quoting the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sevenski v. Artfitch.
 
“As the Sixth Circuit recognized in Sevenski,” Judge Braig wrote, “a police officer interacting with a passenger who refuses to obey a command cannot do anything he wants to the passenger. An officer’s authority under Wilson [v. Maryland] to order a passenger out of the vehicle is not that broad. To the extent the State’s counsel believed the officer’s authority was that broad when he indicted Defendant Cobb, he made a critical legal error.
 
The City of Bellefontaine is not a ‘police state’ or even a ‘police city.’ But Officer Purk’s conduct at the scene reflected police-state officer conduct. Construed in a light most favorable to the State, the Court concludes, as a matter of law, that Officer Purks’ use of force policy and application of his policy to Defendant Cobb violated Defendant Cobb’s constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment.”
 
At trial, Mr. Cobb testified that if Officer Purk had told him about the warrant he probably would have obeyed the order to exit the vehicle and submitted to arrest. The State of Ohio did not produce any evidence to rebut Mr. Cobb’s testimony on that point.
 
“In this case, there is no evidence that gives rise to a reason to think that Defendant Cobb would have resisted if Officer Purk had simply told Defendant Cobb of the warrant—what [former U.S. Supreme Court} Justice [Anthony] Kennedy called ‘a satisfactory explanation for the invasive action,’” Judge Braig wrote. “Defendant Cobb did all he could to invite Officer Purk to tell him. Officer Purk snubbed him. If Officer Purk had accepted Defendant Cobb’s invitation and told Defendant Cobb about the warrant and Defendant Cobb resisted, then the State could prove beyond a reasonable doubt the offense of resisting arrest.
 
“Officer Purk had broad authority to control the scene at the stop. But Officer Purk and the State bear the consequences for how he did so even when the consequences result in the State’s case being hoist with its own petard and put Officer Purk’s and Officer Kenner II’s qualified immunity in jeopardy.
 
“One of the consequences of Officer Purk’s decision making at the scene and the one that is before the Court on this motion is that the State has failed to produce evidence upon which a rational trier of fact could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendant Cobb assaulted either officer or obstructed any official business.”

Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Please today sentenced Edward Langley to a jointly recommended prison term of five years on his convictions on engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a felony of the second degree, and seven counts of breaking and entering, all felonies of the fifth degree.

All of the crime occurred in the aftermath of the tornado that struck Lakeview, Ohio, in March of 2024. The defendant cut locks off storage units and engaged in other criminal conduct that constituted breaking and entering. Judge Braig called Mr. Langley’s conduct “looting” and  “repulsive” during the sentencing hearing.

Prosecutor Eric Stewart and defense counsel Ralph Bauer, Sidney, Ohio recommended the five-year prison term and Judge Braig adopted the recommendation.

Judge Kevin P. Braig of the Logan County Court of Common Pleas today sentenced Jeffrey Rivers to five-to-seven and a half years in prison and Tyler Cabot to three-to-four and a half years in prison.

Rivers pled guilty to seven counts of breaking and entering and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The offenses arose out of a series of theft offenses committed in the aftermath of the tornado that swept through Logan County in March of 2024.

Cabot’s offense related to drive-by shootings in Bellefontaine and Russells Point.
​
Both sentences were recommended by Logan County Prosecutor Eric Stewart and the Court followed the recommendations.

Today a Logan County grand jury found Marcus R. Cobb guilty of two counts of assault on a police officer, felonies of the fourth degree, and two counts of obstructing official business, felonies of the fifth degree.

The case arose from events occurring in December of 2023. Bellefontaine Police Officer Andrew Purk stopped the car in which Cobb was a passenger and called Bellefontaine Police Officer Blake Kenner II for backup. When Cobb failed to immediately exit the vehicle when ordered to do so by Officer Purk and asked the officers if there was a warrant for his arrest, the officers physically removed Cobb from the car. A scuffle ensued in which according to the officers Cobb punched Kenner II and bit Purk. The officers struck back and tased Cobb who received treatment for his injuries in Mary Rutan Hospital. Neither officer received any medical treatment.

Judge Braig instructed the jury that it found Cobb presented evidence that tended to support the finding that Cobb used non-deadly force in self-defense, the State of Ohio had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cobb did not act in self-defense.
​
The State of Ohio as represented by Logan County Assistant Prosecutor Nathan Yohey. Cobb was represented by defense counsel John Cunningham of Dayton, Ohio.