By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
The drug trafficking trial of Jonathan Bagley got underway Wednesday in Common Pleas Court and the overriding question wasn’t who shot JFK, but rather who is JFK.
Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Hoovler is pointing the finger squarely at Bagley, but the 27-year-old defendant from Columbus insists it isn’t him.
Bagley is on trial for two counts of fourth-degree felony drug trafficking and faces up to 36 months in prison if convicted. The state’s case hinges on the use of a confidential informant who purchased heroin in Bucyrus on two separate dates in August of 2015 from a Columbus man whose street name is JFK.
While the informant identified a photo of Bagley as JFK, defense attorney Sebastian Berger spent much of the first day of the trial trying to taint the informant’s identification as well as his credibility.
“If you believe the confidential informant is not a credible witness, then you can’t believe testimony when the (informant) says Jonathan Bagley is JFK,” Berger told the jury in his opening statement. “No one has ever seen JFK.”
Hoovler laid out his case to the jury in his opening statement, admitting his case wasn’t perfect and that the informant is an addict, uses drugs and was paid to make buys by the Bucyrus Police Department.
“You have an eyewitness,” Hoovler told the jury after he described undercover buys from 317 S. East St. on Aug. 6 and Aug. 14 of 2015. “(The informant) was able to buy heroin from JFK. Why? Because (the informant) already knew him.”
In addition to the photo of Bagley shown to the informant following the second buy he identified as JFK, the man from whom he purchased four bindles of heroin on both occasions. The informant first described JFK to police as a 5-foot-5, 5-foot-6 dark-skinned black man from Columbus who was “sleeved out” (arm covered in tattoos) and tattoos on his face of tear drops and possibly a cross or star. He also wore dreadlocks.
While much of the physical description given by the informant and recorded by police does fit Bagley, Berger said his client is not particularly dark-skinned and his facial tattoos do not include either a star or a cross. The defense attorney showed the jury blown up close-ups of Bagley’s face to make his point.
Hoovler called Bucyrus Police Captain Neil Assenheimer as his first witness. It was 
Assenheimer who originally opened the department’s drug investigation of JFK in January of 2015. The investigation led Assenheimer to the conclusion JFK was in fact Jonathan Bagley.
According to Assenheimer, it was the informant who contacted police and offered to make undercover buys in exchange for consideration on charges of theft. Told the best the department could do in crimes involving a victim was to tell the prosecutor of the informant’s cooperation, the informant did sign an agreement. When the complaint was withdrawn by the victim, the terms of the agreement were changed and the informant was paid on average of $20 per undercover drug buy and getting as much as $35 for the buy on Aug. 14.
The informant called Capt. Joe Greathouse on Aug. 6 saying a buy could be set up with JFK. Greathouse supervised that operation because Assenheimer was on vacation. The informant made the buy at 317. S. East St. wearing an audio transmitter.
The informant called Assenheimer on Aug. 14 saying another buy from JFK was possible at the same address. Again the informant wore an audio transmitter, but the quality of the second recording was so poor as to render it all but useless. It was after the second buy that the informant identified a photo of Bagley as JFK.
The police had hoped for a third buy from JFK and then to get a search warrant. Subsequent calls by the informant to JFK did result in heroin buys, but at a different Bucyrus address and from another Caucasian man identified by the informant as David Alspach.
“From what we could tell, he (JFK) stopped coming around, so the CI stopped,” Assenheimer testified.
Assenheimer said an arrest warrant was obtained for Bagley who was eventually arrested by the Delaware Sheriff’s Office in April of this year. He has been in custody ever since.
Under cross examination, Berger hit hard on the manner in which Assenheimer supervised and used the informant. The attorney solicited from Assenheimer that the informant was never drug tested and could have used the money given by police to buy drugs for personal use.
Berger also brought out that police never traced or monitored calls made by the informant to JFK and never checked into who owned or rented 317 S. East St. at the time of the buys.
Under re-direct, Assenheimer stated that undercover buys from the same informant in other cases has resulted in several convictions.
Greathouse was the only other witness during Wednesday’s proceedings. His testimony focused primarily on the circumstances of the Aug. 6 buy. Under cross examination, Greathouse said although a video transmitter was discussed, it was never considered seriously because the hot weather at the time would have placed the informant at greater risk of discovery by JFK, whom the police thought may have been armed.
The prosecution is expected complete its case on Thursday before turning the trial over to the defense. The case is expected to go to the jury for deliberation some time on Thursday.