By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
UPDATE: Both the prosecution and defense finished their cases this (Friday) morning and have rested. The jury is expected to go into deliberations this afternoon after hearing final arguments.
The victim of a shooting incident recalls very little of the night she was shot but there was one moment that it seems she can’t forget.
Thursday marked the first day of trial for Brian Brown, a 30 year veteran of the Galion Fire Department, who is facing an attempted murder charge.
Fifty-eight-year-old Brown, dressed in his firefighter dress uniform, sat in Crawford County Common Pleas Court flanked by his counsel, Shane Leuthold, as the victim and Brown’s former girlfriend, Shelly Fry, recounted the little bit she could remember about May 2, 2013.
Fry walked into Common Pleas Court and sat behind the witness stand Thursday afternoon. She answered questions from County Prosecutor Matt Crall and defense counsel Leuthold in a soft, raspy voice. Fry remembered doing laundry earlier in the day but, when questioned about going out to social clubs later that evening with Brown, she could remember very little of those events.
In fact, there was really only one moment Fry could recall before waking up in the hospital. “I remembered looking at Brian and he told me ‘I no longer have a choice. I have to do this,’” recalled Fry.
Fry was referring to the shooting incident on May 2, 2013. Brown and Fry had a night out in Galion, going from Trackside 30 to the AmVets to the American Legion to the VFW before heading home that night. They had been drinking at each establishment.
It would later be established that Brown had barely been over the legal limit at .088 while Fry was three times over the legal limit at .248.
Sometime during the night, Brown and Fry got into an argument. Once returning to their home at 246 S. Union St. in Galion, Brown shot Fry two times.
Though there is plenty of evidence to show that Fry was shot that night, Crall said it will be the words and actions of Brown after Fry was shot that will prove that he purposefully tried to cause the death of Fry. Leuthold argued that the shooting was accidental; it was the result of Brown’s depression, that night’s intoxication, and the argument.
“On this particular day, he’d had enough,” Leuthold stated in his opening argument. He believed that evidence would prove that Brown had been holding the gun to his head, attempting to kill himself, when Fry grabbed the gun, pulled it down and was shot in the ensuing struggle.
Galion Detective Eric Bohach was able to fill in the events of the night. He was the lead investigator on the shooting and had been called to the stand by Crall.
After Fry was shot, Brown had headed next door, where his ex-wife, his daughter and his granddaughter lived, and he told them that Fry had been shot. He said goodbye to his daughter before leaving for a friend’s house in Morrow County. After arriving at Lisa Zeisler’s house, Brown discovered that she was not home. He talked a bit with her daughter, washed his hands and face, and spoke with Zeisler on the phone before leaving for Galion once again.
As he headed back into Galion, an off-duty officer spotted Brown traveling in his car and followed him into town.
Brown ran out of gas in the 1300 block of McClure St. and started walking. Police, receiving multiple reports of a man running or walking through back yards, soon found Brown in the vicinity of Mardo Lane.
Galion police officer Ryan Novik, who had been called to the witness stand by Crall, said he and Lt. Lynn Sterling saw Brown walking on the street. They gave commands for Brown to get on the ground but, Novik stated, he ignored them and kept walking.
“(He) kind of swatted us away like he didn’t want us there,” Novik recalled, making a “go away” gesture in the air to mimic Brown’s motion.
Leuthold asked Novik about the positioning of Brown’s hands as they approached him. Though they had been chest high as Novik and Sterling approached, Novik couldn’t be sure that Brown didn’t have a gun on his person.
“I knew he didn’t have a gun in his hands,” Novik stressed after the lawyer stated Novik knew Brown didn’t have a gun.
Novik said he told Sterling he would move behind Brown to get in to position to tase him. During this time, members of a task force formed to help search for Brown also arrived on scene. Novik said there were “simultaneous” taser shots to Brown’s back by himself and two other task force members. Brown’s muscles seized up and he fell face first onto the concrete. He sustained facial injuries from the fall.
Novik said a nine millimeter semiautomatic handgun had been retrieved from the scene and placed in the trunk of his car. It would later be determined by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation that this was the same gun to have been used to shoot Fry.
Galion firefighter and paramedic Charles Altstadt had responded to the shooting incident and to Brown’s injuries on Mardo Lane. Crall had called him to the witness stand to review that night.
Upon arrival to the S. Union St. home, Altstadt said they found a female lying on her back against the railing of the home’s deck. At the time, Altstadt did not know it was Fry. The squad discovered the victim with three wounds to her chest and abdomen, a wound to her left arm, and another gunshot wound on her back.
Fry would be transported to Galion Community Hospital before being LifeFlighted to Grant Medical Center in Columbus. She suffered six gunshot wounds from that night: on her upper right arm area, her left breast, her left forearm, her right abdomen area, and on her lower back near her spine. Fry stayed in the hospital for a month and left with a plate in her arm, stitches in her heart, and her spleen removed. She also sustained damage to her liver, kidney and intestinal area and had her left forearm broken.
Around 9:40 p.m. Altstadt would again be call out, this time to attend to Brown’s injuries. Brown had three sets of taser darts in his back and blood on his nose and face when Altstadt arrived.
Altstadt knew the former firefighter and asked him if he knew what happened. Brown said he didn’t. En route to the hospital, Altstadt once again asked Brown if he remembered what happened. Brown said no but asked if his girlfriend was okay.
Detective Bohach took statements from Brown’s ex-wife Anna Brown, his daughter Bethany Brown, and from Zeisler. Anna and Bethany Brown had been the ones to call 911. Fry would not be interviewed until May 10 due to her medical condition.
Bohach interviewed Brown at Galion Community Hospital early on May 3 as Brown lay handcuffed to a bed. One eye was swollen shut and his face had swelled up. Bohach recalled a strong alcohol smell in the room.
Assistant prosecutor Ryan Hoovler played Brown’s audio statement for the jury. As Bohach went about questioning Brown, he asked Brown basic questions about his background. Brown answered them easily. When Bohach moved on to the shooting incident, Brown replied with statements like “this doesn’t make sense to me” and “I don’t understand this.”
Hoovler remarked that Brown didn’t seem to have the inability to remember things about himself and quickly remembered he had a lawyer—though Brown couldn’t recall his name—but he did seem to have problems recalling the shooting incident and gave standard “I don’t remember” and “I don’t understand” responses.
Leuthold asked Bohach if he knew that the hospital said Brown had had a concussion and was amnesiac that night. He added that Brown had to ask Bohach who shot Fry.
Leuthold also asked Bohach why they didn’t do a gunshot residue analysis on Fry to see if she had grabbed the gun during a struggle. Leuthold added that Bohach accused Brown of attempted murder but didn’t do routine tests.
“You can’t sit here and say with any certainty that this was an accidental or incidental shooting, can you?” Leuthold asked Bohach.
In a redirect, Hoovler asked Bohach if a suspected criminal ever said “I don’t remember” to fool an officer. Bohach said yes.
Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Ed Staley had also been called to the stand to review his investigation into the shooting. Bohach requested the Bureau’s help with the investigation due to the amount of evidence, which they are better equipped to handle.
Staley reviewed the photos he had taken of the night. The photos had documented the rooms where evidence was found and the bullets and cartridges that had been found in a jar of Miracle Whip and in the floor.
Staley stated that the evidence was consistent with a gun being fired in the kitchen.
However, in cross examination by Leuthold, Staley said the bullet discovered in the refrigerator was not consistent with a bullet being fired horizontally, as the bullet’s path had entered the door at a 24 degree downward sloping angle. It could not be determined what angle the gun had been fired when the second bullet entered the floor.
Leuthold argued that Staley’s evidence could prove that Fry had been shot in the kitchen but not whether the shooting had been intentional or accidental.
The attempted murder trial will continue into Friday with additional witnesses being called to the stand.