Man pleads guilty to ramming car, driver at BP
A man who rammed a car and its driver at a gas station in March 2023 reached a plea agreement after a mistrial earlier this year for witness misconduct.
Ronnie Eugene Falls Jr., 37, of Dayton pleaded guilty Thursday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to tampering with evidence and failure to stop after a non-public road accident and a misdemeanor charge of negligent assault via a bill of information.
He will be sentenced May 21 to 1½ years in prison, according to plea documents filed Thursday. He originally was indicted for felonious assault and the failure to stop count, but his indictment was waived, court records show.
Falls got into an argument March 12, 2023, with a man unknown to him at the BP gas station at 500 Salem Ave.
“Witnesses stated the suspect rammed the victim’s car and then chased the victim around in his car after the victim hit the suspect’s car with a metal pipe,” according to an affidavit filed in Dayton Municipal Court.
When the person in the second vehicle got out and attempted to pick up the metal pipe, Falls struck the other man with his vehicle, according to court records.
Judge Kimberly Melnick declared a mistrial after determining Falls “could no longer receive a fair trial” based on “misconduct of a witness for the state during their testimony” before a jury March 6. The misconduct, which was not specified, did not involve the prosecution, the judge’s order stated.