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Benwood Fire Chief Garson Taylor was sentenced by 2nd Judicial Circuit Court Judge Charles Wilson to serve 270 days in jail, with a year of parole afterward, for three misdemeanor charges stemming from a standoff with police officers on April 10.
The three counts of brandishing a firearm, fleeing from an officer in a vehicle and obstructing an officer each carry a year sentence with them that Taylor will serve concurrently in a suspended sentence at the Northern Regional Jail.
In addition to the jail time and probation, Taylor received a $500 fine for the count of fleeing from an officer.
The charges arose from an altercation between Taylor and his ex-wife, Tayler Hebb. The argument escalated to a point where Benwood Police officers were called to their residence on McMechen Street.
When the police arrived, Taylor fled the scene in his truck, leading to a chase that culminated in an hour-long standoff between officers and Taylor on a gravel road off Route 2.
"It is what it is," said Marshall County Prosecutor Joe Canestraro on the less than one-year Taylor will serve, as he had argued that the three one-year misdemeanor charges run consecutively, not concurrently.
"This was not your run-of-the-mill brandishing a firearm or obstructing officers," noted Canestraro. "This was totally different and totally more severe. He was in an armed standoff with police for nearly an hour."
Canestraro feels the jail time Taylor will serve "sends the message you can't be in an armed standoff with police."
Defense attorney Robert McCoid noted that the sentence was "typical for these types of offenses." He explained that Taylor would "probably serve around four and a half months total" based on how the jail calculates good time and work days.
"I can't say that Judge Wilson did anything except carefully and thoughtfully weigh all the issues and variables in the case and arrive at what he believed to be a fair and just decision," added McCoid. "We put a lot of work into constructing an argument that created a three-dimensional picture of who Garson is for the court in terms of people who know him in his character letters."
A different picture of who Taylor is was created by both Canestraro and McCoid during their arguments at the sentencing hearing. The idea of there being two Garson Taylors: the Taylor on April 10 and the Taylor before and after April 10 was a key point for both the prosecution and defense.
For Canestraro, the Taylor on April 10, who was found guilty of three misdemeanors, should receive a year sentence for each count to meet "the severity of the actions that day and his poor choices that day."
"The defendant failed to comply with lawful commands of law enforcement officers to get out of his truck and to drop the firearm," explained Canestraro. "This was done for nearly an hour with officers on the scene that were taken away from their other responsibilities to deal with a man that had a lack of respect for officers."
For defense attorney Robert McCoid, the Taylor on April 10, who "only existed a couple of hours that day," should not trump "the man who lived 32 years without issue in his life." Using 44 statements written by Taylor's peers as evidence of his good character, McCoid noted that Taylor was spearheading the formation of a PTSD support group through Norwood Health System.
Adding that since the trial, Taylor was reinstated as chief of the Benwood Fire Department, McCoid cited this as the community viewing that Taylor "is being rehabilitated."
Taylor was moved to tears while delivering an apology to the Benwood police officers in the courtroom.
"I'm deeply sorry for putting you all through the event," he said. "You may have had to take my life, or it was hard to wrap your heads around, and again, I'm greatly sorry for that.
"The man in the mugshot is not me and not a man we will ever see again," he added.
To demonstrate the steps he has taken to better himself, Taylor detailed the therapy he was undergoing.
"I want to be able to lose this chapter in my life, move forward, continue my therapy at Northwood and show my daughter every day what great things this short life has to offer," finished Taylor.
Commending Taylor for the "heartfelt statement" he gave, Wilson explained that Taylor's own words, on top of the arguments from the prosecution and defense, "all factored into making this a difficult decision" for him.
"I think as a first responder, Mr. Taylor, above all, should respect and appreciate that orders must be followed," noted Wilson. "It's virtually uncountable the number of times Mr. Taylor was ordered to exit the vehicle without his firearm.
He alone could have saved the day and the trauma for everyone that was involved by simply following the law."
In reference to the three-year sentence the prosecution requested and the sentences of probation the defense argued for, Wilson summarized before delivering his verdict on Wednesday, "The right answer may lie at either extreme or somewhere in the middle."