By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

Ryan Hoovler wasn’t holding anything back when he argued his first jury trial as a Crawford County assistant prosecuting attorney.

In Hoovler’s opening statement on Thursday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court he argued that the State would show that 24-year-old Jarell Walker had trespassed in an occupied structure while someone was home with the intent to inflict harm. Walker is currently facing a first degree felony aggravated burglary charge.

Hoovler called on Lieutenant Kevin Wert of the Bucyrus Police Department for his direct eyewitness testimony of the events that took place at 227 Bland Avenue between June 26 and June 27.

Wert responded to a 911 call in the general area of Bland Avenue where, after searching the area, discovered a young male he identified as Randall Allen. Allen had been standing near the residence located at 227 Bland Avenue. Wert said Allen then pointed to the residence and told Wert that someone was getting beat up. When Wert went to investigate, he said he saw Allen making a slashing motion across his throat, indicating to someone inside to stop what they were doing. Wert then saw three people running to the south.

According to Wert, who didn’t pursue the three individuals because of the lead they had on him, he then saw Jordan Ernsberger standing at the door of the home with abrasions all over his body. After calling for an ambulance, Wert then discovered Allen sitting on the porch of his grandparents’ home nearby. He testified in court that Allen also appeared to have been assaulted.

Upon further investigation, Wert did not discover forced entry of the home but did find that the living room, where Ernsberger had been sleeping, had been ransacked. Ernsberger and Allen both identified Walker as being involved in the assault.

Wert said he saw a white Pontiac in the area of Bland Avenue as he went about his investigation that night and morning. The vehicle was identified as belonging to Walker’s girlfriend, Lauren Kaple. Wert went to Kaple’s apartment where he spied the vehicle with Walker sleeping inside. Wert then arrested Walker.

Clifton Ross, Jesse Baird and Ben Aicher were also identified as being involved.

Defense attorney Brad Starkey argued in his opening statement that the case presented to jurors would be like a puzzle that the prosecutor would be putting together, albeit a puzzle with pieces that won’t fit.
“It won’t; it can’t,” said Starkey, “Because these pieces to the puzzle aren’t all there.”

Starkey said he would argue that Walker had not been in the house nor was there any evidence that he had been in there.

“You’ll see why they said he was in the house,” explained Starkey. Walker’s counsel added that Allen would be the most essential piece of the puzzle.

“If we got missing pieces to that puzzle — we’ve got reasonable doubt,” he said.
When Starkey took the podium to question Wert, he focused on what the Bucyrus Police Department did — or didn’t do — with the evidence.

Walker sat quietly beside his counsel in a blue pinstripe suit and a blue collared shirt, occasionally writing on a notepad. He watched intently as Wert was questioned and photos were displayed.

When questioned, Wert said he didn’t take a pair of shoes and a hat that one of the individuals had dropped while fleeing in as evidence because he did not believe they had any evidentiary value. A laptop that Ernsberger and Wert presumed the individuals were going to steal was also not taken into evidence and no steps had been taken to fingerprint it. A bloody pillow had also not been taken into evidence because, Wert explained, Ernsberger had said it was his blood on it.

A footprint analysis was also not taken, though Wert explained that step is usually taken only when there is mud, snow or a kicked in door. Wert had confiscated Walker’s iPhone at the time of his arrest but did not secure a warrant for potential text conversations or for his GPS location during that night.

Starkey also questioned Wert harder on the fact that Ernsberger had retrieved a gun when his assailant fled the scene. Wert, who didn’t know Ernsberger had a gun at the time, said Ernsberger spotted the policeman approaching the house, locked the door and disappeared before returning to speak to him.

Starkey asked Wert whether he found it suspicious that Ernsberger had locked the door upon Wert’s approach and hid the gun.

Wert said he had found it to be suspicious.

Hoovler later used one of his best cards in the deck when he called 20-year-old Ernsberger to the stand.

Ernsberger had been staying at his grandfather’s house that night, something that he usually does when he had to go to his college classes the next day. He went to bed around 9 p.m., sleeping on the couch in his grandfather’s living room, he said, when “I woke up to the beat down of my life.”

Ernsberger believed that he sustained over 100 blows.

“It was very hectic. I was catching blows from all sides,” he said.

Ernsberger had been punched and kicked and hit with a gun and a knife. He alleged that one of the assailants had been wearing a pair of steel-toed boots at the time of the beating.

When someone turned on the lights, Ernsberger said he was able to identify all of the men in the room. He named Walker, Ross, and Aicher as the assailants, all men that he knew in one way or another.

At one point, Ernsberger alleged, Walker had put a gun and a knife in his face and said he was going to kill him. The assailants then started going through Ernsberger’s things and ransacking the room while continuing the beating.

“Their hands were getting sore from hitting me,” Ernsberger said.

He stated that they then wrapped their hands in some of his shirts to continue hitting him.

Ernsberger stated that the assailants never said why they were there that night. He later added, when questioned by Starkey, that with some moonlight coming in through the window he was able to see two black men and two white men in the room before the lights came on.

Starkey also asked Ernsberger why he grabbed a gun as soon as he got a chance.

“What were you going to do with the gun?” he asked.

“Defend myself at all costs,” said Ernsberger.

He also denied locking the door when Wert approached.
Ernsberger, who is good friends with Allen, believed that Allen had been “getting his beat down” and coerced into calling Ernsberger earlier that evening.

In a short redirect, Hoovler asked Ernsberger about the gun in Walker’s hand that night. Ernsberger said it was a silver revolver. He added that it looked like a .38.

Walker’s trial continues today with additional witnesses expected to be called.