Testimony on Gunfire Heard in Day Two of Homicide Trial in Wheeling
Gunfire, videos to be considered in Acoff shooting trial
WHEELING — Jurors in the Dallas Acoff murder trial soon will have to decide whether the muzzle flash they saw on surveillance video Tuesday was actually the deadly shot that hit Lemroy Coleman in the left abdomen on Oct. 9 just outside an East Wheeling bar.
And they’ll consider other issues, such as whether the single, spent shell casing found near Coleman in the alley where he lay wounded means his gun discharged as he fell — or if he actually shot at someone else in the alley.
The state, represented by Ohio County Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Turak, told the jury and Circuit Judge David Sims that Acoff, of Bridgeport, fired a shot from the steps at the American Legion Post 89 at 1419 Jacob St. — the shot that allegedly hit and later killed Coleman, 33, of Wheeling.
That shot occurred during what lead investigator Cpl. Greg Harris, a detective with the Wheeling Police Department, agreed during testimony was “an exchange of gunfire” outside the bar.
Among Acoff’s six felony charges are a murder charge regarding Coleman’s death, and malicious assault, regarding the wounding of Norman Banks, who was shot in the leg. Banks, while wounded, reportedly walked himself to the Wheeling Police Department nearby.
Tuesday was the second day of Acoff’s trial before a jury of 10 women and two men. Sims said he expects the trial to end sometime Thursday.
Acoff is charged with six felony counts of a seven-count indictment: murder, malicious assault, being a person prohibited from possessing a firearm and three counts of wanton endangerment involving a firearm, according to the May 9 indictment.
Rocco Pasquale Pandoli is named in one count of the indictment, charged with aiding and abetting murder, also a felony. He is accused of helping Acoff allegedly kill Coleman, the indictment states.
The state must prove to the jury that Acoff is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on each of his charges, and that the alleged crimes, beyond a reasonable doubt, were not done in self-defense.
During the first two days of trial, the court has heard from police officers, Harris, and from Acoff’s girlfriend at the time. The bulk of testimony Tuesday came from Harris, who reviewed the investigation, as well as surveillance videos and still images from the crime. Videos include two from the Wheeling Police Department’s camera set on a utility pole and facing the front of the bar at 15th Street. That’s a camera that can be remotely turned by police or Ohio County 911, enabling them to view Jacob Street, as well; and videos from the bar’s cameras that are situated at angles both inside and outside the bar.
A video allegedly shows Acoff firing a fatal shot, followed by what Turak and Harris describe as a “muzzle flash” that they say is apparent on the city’s surveillance video, Turak and Harris said.
However, Acoff’s counsel, Martin Sheehan, disagrees that his client fired the fatal shot. While showing part of another surveillance video, Sheehan described that “Mr. Coleman is at a dead run,” immediately after the gunfire exchange involving Acoff that took place outside the bar at 15th and Jacob streets.
Harris agreed that “it looks like it,” referring to Coleman running in the direction of Lane E, about 200 feet away, where police found him wounded.
Sheehan’s other questions for Harris indicated he was trying to show the fatal shot occurred elsewhere, while Acoff was off in another direction, but still accounted for under video surveillance.
Sheehan also says Acoff acted in self defense. Shell casings from Norman Banks’ gun were found on 15th Street, across from the bar’s steps, he noted.
But Turak disputed the idea of an additional shooting occurring elsewhere.
“Have you ever, in your long career in law enforcement, had back-to-back shootings in the same block, with two actors within five minutes or less of each other?” she asked Harris.
“No,” Harris replied.
And, regarding the casing found near Coleman’s body, Turak said Coleman could have fired it “as a physical reaction to falling down,” referring to his falling after being wounded. She said the defense is only speculating by saying Coleman might actually have fired at someone at a location other than outside the bar.
The state also questioned Acoff’s girlfriend, Cheyenne Marie Wayne Beal of Bridgeport, who testified she drove Acoff to the bar Oct. 9, before she drove around downtown, then went home. She said theirs was an on-again, off-again relationship since about 2014, and that they are no longer together.
When Turak asked her if Acoff was talking to anyone on the phone on the way to the bar, Beal said she thought he was talking to “Fresh” and “Nose,” referring to nicknames for co-defendants Pandoli and Michael Johnson, respectively. But when Sheehan questioned her, she said Acoff could have been talking to someone else, as “he was (often) talking to other girls,” Beal said.
She testified that on Oct. 10, she drove to Cleveland to spend the night in a hotel with Acoff in Cleveland, before she returned home Oct. 11 and found out that Acoff was a suspect in the shooting at the bar. She said he did not wish to return home with her, but opted to stay in Cleveland with family.
Regarding the shooting, she recalled Acoff saying during a telephone call to her Oct. 11: “They were all shooting. I don’t want to talk about it.”
The state expects to call four to five other witnesses tomorrow. In addition, the defense team of Sheehan and Christopher Sheetz anticipate calling seven to eight witnesses.
COMMENTS