By Kelsey Keny

Tribune Intern

A one-day trial Tuesday resulted in a mixed verdict for a Lewisburg man. A jury of nine men and three women found Jacob Ervin guilty of simple assault, but not guilty of the other offences with which he was charged: aggravated assault and three counts of reckless endangerment.

Ervin, 33, was taken into custody Sunday, March 17, after allegedly threatening his former roommate, Wesley Richards, with a handgun and putting the lives of Richards's fiancée Lauren Dumser and her friend Christy Tadajewski in danger.

Ervin, Richards, and Dumser lived together at 301 5th Avenue North. Tadajewski was also there that Sunday evening. The group was playing cards when Richards said Ervin became upset and slapped him. Richards claimed there was some arguing between the two, but he did not fight Ervin. Richards said Ervin went upstairs and all three tried to calm him. He added that Dumser then stayed with Ervin while he and Tadajewski went downstairs.

Richards said he planned to go upstairs a second time when Ervin pointed a handgun with a red laser attachment at his head from the top of the stairs.

"He said 'You come up here, you gonna die,'" Richards said.

Both Dumser and Tadajewski stated they had been in a different room and never saw a gun.

Richards said all four had been drinking. He stated Ervin was "very, very intoxicated, and very, very mad." Dumser said Richards had one or two mixed drinks, Tadajewski had one, and she had about one and a half.

The state presented a letter Ervin sent Richards after the incident. In the letter, Ervin apologized, writing, "I hope you can forgive me... I would never do anything to hurt you or Lauren... I was just shining the laser down the hall so you wouldn't come up."

When Ervin took the stand, he said Richards assaulted him that evening when he went upstairs. Ervin said Richards knocked him to the ground and Dumser had to separate them. Ervin said he told Richards to go away and shone the laser in his eye to keep Richards from going upstairs the second time. He said the laser was not attached to the handgun at that time. He added that Richards immediately shut the door.

"I didn't want to scare him to death," Ervin said. "I just wanted him to stay away."

Four Lewisburg Police officers arrived on the scene at 11:45 p.m. after Tadajewski called 911. Sergeant Kevin Patin saw Ervin inside the house and approached. After Ervin put his hands up, Patin said Ervin tossed a gun onto a couch in the living room. When Ervin was patted down, another gun was found in his waistband.

Both were semiautomatic handguns. Patin said the first gun had a laser attachment on it and was fully loaded, but no bullet was in the chamber. The second gun was loaded with a bullet in the chamber.

"All it would have taken to fire that weapon is a simple pull of the trigger," Patin said.

Ervin testified that neither gun was loaded. He said the other witnesses, including three Lewisburg Police officers, were lying.

"Why would these three men put their careers on the line for this guy?" Assistant District Attorney Eddie Bernard said in his closing argument. "He wants everybody to be a liar in this case."

Ervin's public defender Bill Harold asked jurors to see reasonable doubt.

"I'm suggesting there are different perceptions of that happened," he said. "I'm not suggesting everyone's lying."

The jury found Ervin not guilty of aggravated assault towards Richards. This felony offense requires the perpetrator to have intentionally caused a person to fear serious bodily injury, with the use or display of a deadly weapon. Ervin was found guilty of the Class A misdemeanor simple assault, which requires the same terms except for the use of a deadly weapon.

Ervin was found not guilty on three counts of reckless endangerment, towards Richards, Dumser, and Tadajewski. Reckless endangerment is a felony offense that requires the perpetrator to have placed a person in danger by acting recklessly with a deadly weapon.

"We're very happy with the verdict," Harold said.

The jury deliberated for an hour. One of the male jurors said the jury had struggled with determining the assault.

"We were hung up on the assault charge, whether it was a felony," he said. "Everything else was pretty much not proven."

Ervin will have a sentencing hearing in the near future. Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to 11 months and 29 days in jail, a $2,500 fine, or both.