×
X logo

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox.

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account.

Defendant in Wheeling Murder Trail Claims He Fired in Self-Defense

ACOFF

WHEELING — Dallas “Dal” Acoff told jurors in his murder trial Wednesday he didn’t expect Lemroy Coleman would threaten his life — or that he would become involved in an exchange of gunfire — when he went to the American Legion bar on Jacob Street Oct. 9.

Acoff, of Bridgeport, is charged with murder in Wheeling resident Coleman’s shooting death that night, according to his May 9 indictment. Acoff’s other five felony charges include malicious assault regarding the wounding of Norman Banks, who was shot in the leg.

The trial is before Judge David Sims in Ohio County Circuit Court.

Acoff testified in his own defense Wednesday that Coleman “did a hand gesture and he said when I come out of the bar, he’s going to kill me,” Acoff said, recalling that he had just arrived at the American Legion when he had the interaction. “I was looking at his body posture and saw him tugging at his waistline. I saw the butt of a gun.”

Acoff said he fired only one shot that night, and that his wasn’t the first shot fired. Rather, the first shot was fired by someone else during his first attempt to leave through the bar’s only entry and exit: the front door.

“When I opened the door, I saw (Coleman) on the left … standing in between two cars in the street” with Banks, Acoff said. “He had a gun down by his side. … I showed a weapon and said, ‘I have a gun, too.'”

That’s when Acoff said he heard a shot that Banks fired, so he and an unidentified man — described only as “puffy, orange jacket guy” during the trial — ducked back inside the door to the bar. He said that’s what was occurring in video surveillance evidence, but that he did not shoot upon leaving the bar that first time.

However, Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Turak said the same video evidence shows it’s one of the times that he did fire.

Acoff described the second time he tried to leave the bar. This time, he checked the bar’s surveillance monitors to see that the scene was cleared, that he couldn’t see Coleman and Banks before he came out of the bar a second time in order to get an urgent ride away with his friends. But after he exited, he had to take cover from the sound of gunshots and let off a shot out of fear, he said.

Acoff’s longtime friend, Rocco Pasquale Pandoli, who is charged with aiding and abetting murder, also testified Wednesday.

Coleman, 33, died of a gunshot wound to the right abdomen — a wound he allegedly suffered during the exchange of gunfire outside the bar, including on the steps to the bar, Turak said. But Martin Sheehan, lead counsel for Acoff, said another shooting could have occurred later, because Coleman was running quickly away from the gunfire at the bar, toward Lane E, where he was later found wounded.

Coleman was pronounced dead at Ohio Valley Medical Center.

Sheehan said Tuesday that, according to police documents, Banks had mentioned a robbery, but that specific crime had not been investigated.

Elizabeth Severson Mooney, the medical examiner who performed Coleman’s autopsy Oct. 9, deemed Coleman’s cause of death a gunshot wound to the torso, and the manner of his death was homicide.

During her testimony Wednesday, Mooney said Coleman’s fatal gunshot wound created a large amount of internal bleeding. When questioned by Turak, Mooney said Coleman’s wound could have allowed him to “run some distance before succumbing.”

“Shock is happening, your heart tries to compensate by beating faster before you lose consciousness,” Mooney said.

However, in response to questions by Sheehan, she said she couldn’t determine how long it would have taken Coleman to lose consciousness. She said trying to determine how much pain he was in was too subjective a question to answer. The trial is expected to resume at 9:30 a.m. today.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today