Judge Jason Warner, wife file new motion for acquittal
Marion Common Pleas Judge Jason Warner and his wife, Julia, filed a new motion for acquittal after being convicted for their role in a hit-and-skip crash last June.
Jason, who was convicted with complicity to leaving the scene and complicity to tampering with evidence, motioned for acquittal of both felony charges, according to court records. Julia also motioned for acquittal of her two lesser felony charges, negligent assault, as well as complicity to leaving the scene and complicity to tampering with evidence.
Regarding Jason Warner’s charges of complicity to leaving the scene and complicity to tampering with evidence, attorney Sam Shamansky, Jason Warner’s attorney, said the prosecution failed to show any evidence that proves he was driving the vehicle before or after the accident. He said Ohio laws do not require a passenger to stay at the scene of an accident which means he believes Jason was wrongfully convicted of these felony charges.
“There’s absolutely zero evidence to support a finding of guilty against Jason Warner,” Shamansky said. “Our original Rule 29 motion we believe should’ve been granted and in the absence of granting that motion, we firmly believe the evidence supports acquittal for counts three and four for Jason Warner.”
As for Julia’s conviction of two counts of negligent assault, Lisa Tome, Julia’s attorney, stated prosecution failed to present evidence that shows she “caused physical harm” to the victim by means of “a deadly weapon or dangerous ordinance.”
Steve Irwin, press secretary with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said prosecutors will be filing a response to the acquittal motion in the coming days. He said they don’t have an official statement as of Friday morning, but added they find these allegations from the defense attorneys as false.
During specialty appointed Judge Patricia Cosgrove’s guilty finding, she said both Jason and Julia Warner aided and abetted each other in these crimes by leaving the scene of the accident and thereby removed a vital piece of evidence—their Jeep—from the scene. Because the Jeep was returned to their home almost immediately after the accident, law enforcement was unable to conduct any impaired driving tests, or conduct collision forensic studies to get a full scope on the accident, Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove will handled the future proceedings regarding the Warners’ motion for acquittal as well.
The morning after the accident, law enforcement was able to take photos to capture the damage done to the Jeep. In these photos, presented as evidence by prosecution, it shows the Warners’ Jeep was severely damaged, with the driver side tire completely flat and almost ripped off the axle. Other damages include the front bumper, the grill and the headlight all showing signs of being involved in a collision.
Additionally in Cosgrove’s guilty finding, she stated the vehicle was damaged to an extent that would have made it “extremely difficult for a woman to control” and that Jason was “more likely” the person who drove it away from the accident that night. In the motion, Shamanksy stated there was insufficient evidence to prove this, or that he aided or abetted Julia in her charges.
Both Shamansky and Tome stated the court’s findings were based on inferences including Jason being the better driver and that Julia would’ve had a more difficult time driving the car than Jason. Shamanksy said witness testimonies contradicted any findings that would put Jason in the driver’s seat after the collision that night.
He noted forensic analysis showed Julia’s blood on the driver side airbag and Jason’s on the passenger side. Additionally, Shamanksy noted Julia’s statement to law enforcement and her handwritten letter to Colton Gray, the then-19-year-old victim of the crash, in which she acknowledged she drove away from the accident.
Shamansky further said that prosecution did not raise any evidence or testimony that proves Jason played a role in causing Julia’s two charges. He said none of the witnesses testified to seeing the two discuss leaving the scene, or Jason taking any action to encourage Julia to leaving. As for Jason’s role that night, he stated there is no indication that he was “anything more than an observer.”
Marion Common Pleas Judge W.T. Edwards testified during the trial that Jason originally told him that he was asleep before, was awoken from a “bump,” and passed back out at the sight of blood, but later changed his story and admitted to exiting the Jeep after the crash. Jennifer Mahaffey, a witness who testified during the trial, said she saw a man get back in the Jeep on the passenger side.
No other testimonies, including their neighbor who testified to seeing the Jeep pull into the Warners’ garage that night, definitively placed Jason as the driver after the accident.
Additionally, defense attorneys filed a motion to amend these charges as of March 16, 2021, but said they have not received a decision from prosecution, or the court, regarding this matter. Currently, the Delaware County Probation Department is conducting a pre-sentencing investigation and sentencing is scheduled for April 14 at 10:30 a.m. in the Marion Common Pleas Court.
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