Teen robbery suspect enters not-guilty pleas
Ashford faces long list of felonies for February incident when he was 17.
Not-guilty pleas were entered during a Dayton teen’s first adult court appearance in connection with 10 felony charges that involve claiming to be a peace officer, fleeing an armed robbery by seeking to carjack vehicles, and aiming a gun at a police officer before being shot by him.
Charles Vincent Ashford will get a court-appointed attorney while remaining in juvenile detention on a $500,000 bond.
He is accused of crimes that led to a chaotic Miamisburg scene Feb. 5 near the Ohio 725/Interstate 75 interchange that a judge has said put “potentially hundreds of people put at risk” — including that of the off-duty Miami Twp. police officer who wounded him – and attracted safety forces from several jurisdictions.
The 18-year-old, who was 17 at the time, appeared briefly Tuesday morning before Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Singer. Ashford was indicted Friday — with each of the 10 counts involving a gun specification — after his case was transferred to adult court last month.
Ashford, a Dunbar High School student with no criminal record, told court officials he did not have an attorney, and they explained how one will be appointed for him before his next court date, Aug. 8. The case has been assigned to Judge Barbara Gorman.
Specifically, Ashford faces seven counts of aggravated robbery, and one count each of felonious assault on a police officer, discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises and impersonating a peace officer, records show.
He “had on or about his person or under his control a firearm and displayed the firearm, brandished the firearm, indicated he possessed the firearm or used it to facilitate the offense,” according to the indictment.
Authorities said the crimes Ashford are accused of began in Dayton the night of Feb. 4 and ended the next afternoon in Miamisburg.
Two female cashiers at a Miamisburg Shell on Byers Road testified last month in juvenile court a man with a red ski mask
entered their store on Feb. 5 and pointed a weapon.
Surveillance video showed a man in a red ski mask take money from both tills, put it into a bag and then exit the store. As Ashford sought to escape with failed carjacking attempts, authorities said, he pointed a gun at off-duty Miami Twp. police officer James Swearingen, who happened to be in the area.
Jackson Twp. Police Chief Jon Schade has said one of his sergeants, Sgt. Mark Bruner, was running toward Ashford when Swearingen fired his weapon after the suspect pointed his gun at the offduty officer.
Swearingen fired after Ashford refused to drop the gun, wounding the suspect in the arm, authorities have said. Swearingen acted lawfully in shooting Ashford, a grand jury has ruled.
Ashford caused uncertainty at the scene by telling a woman identified as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent that he was an undercover officer, police records show.
“There was just a shooting. It looks like possibly a blue on blue,” the Drug Enforcement Administration agent told a dispatcher. The federal agent clarified that she meant a “police officer on police officer. (The) male is claiming to be an undercover...”