While McIntosh was acquitted of all charges against him, Jones was found guilty of a lesser charge of having weapons under disability. Jones faces a possible three years in prison as a result of the conviction.
The jury deliberated for about four hours on Friday night but could not reach a verdict. Deliberations resumed Monday and jurors finally reached a verdict around 5 p.m.
McIntosh’s attorney, Tim Upton, said he was pleased with the outcome, but there is no reason to celebrate.
“I’m happy for my client, but there’s still a lot of tragedy in this case,” Upton said. “A young man is dead, and he shouldn’t be.”
Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said he believes the jury took into account the backgrounds of everyone involved in the case and “that led them to find reasonable doubt.”
Prior to trial, McIntosh told police he was never at the apartment and Jones said he never shot anyone. Both men took the stand on Friday in the four-day trial.
McIntosh said Sales, a drug dealer, suddenly attacked him when he believed he was a police officer. McIntosh said the 5-foot-7-inch, 150 pound Sales had McIntosh — a much bigger man — pinned on the ground with a gun to his head. Jones said he shot Sales to protect his best friend.
During closing arguments, a very animated Assistant Prosecutor David Kash laid on the ground to demonstrate the defendant’s theory of the crime, and then popped up with his arms outstretched to show the state’s theory.
McIntosh was shot in the knee during the fatal altercation. He said the only way that could happen was if Jones shot Sales in the “butt,” the bullet passed through his thigh and into McIntosh’s knee, while the men were standing up against a wall.
Kash admitted two of their witnesses, Sales’ fiancée, Clarissa Farthing, and a third defendant in the case, Randolph Scott, may have omitted some information when police questioned them, but their versions of the events matched. Scott, who is McIntosh’s cousin, has apparently agreed to plead to a lesser charge in exchange for his testimony.
Kash told the jury that just because a witness raises their right hand — referring to Jones and McIntosh — and swears to tell the truth doesn’t always mean the truth is always told.
“You’ve got the right to disbelieve somebody simply because they are under oath; you don’t have to believe them,” he said. “Being under oath doesn’t mandate psychologically someone telling the truth, it really doesn’t.”
Kyle Rapier, Jones’ attorney, told the jury that Farthing left several details out when she talked to police, and her story and Scott’s don’t mesh.
“I’m not so naïve to think that my client is incapable of lying,” he said. “But the evidence, the evidence you’re looking at, the inconsistencies in this case tell me that he’s telling the truth.”
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