WILMINGTON — A jury trial has been set for a man allegedly involved in an incident during which a wildlife officer was shot.
Thomas Davis, 35, of Jamestown, will appear before Clinton County Municipal Court Judge Mike Daugherty on July 16. A final pretrial was scheduled for June 18.
Davis, facing a misdemeanor complicity charge, is one of the three suspects charged in relation to the December incident in which State Wildlife Investigator Kevin Behr of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was shot.
Bryan Achtermann, 36, of Midland, was found guilty in May on counts of hunting without a license and hunting deer without a permit. He received a suspended 10-day jail sentence for each charge, was fined $500, must forfeit his firearms to the state, is not allowed to hunt for three years, and must take part in supervised probation.
Brian Liming, 44, of Xenia, faces federal weapons charges in U.S. District Court of Southern District of Ohio (Cincinnati) including “unlawful transport of firearms” and “seizure, forfeiture and disposition of firearm.”
Clinton County Prosecutor Andrew T. McCoy told the News Journal in April that Liming was charged under a section of the federal criminal code which makes it a federal crime for an individual with a prior conviction for misdemeanor domestic violence to possess a firearm.
A jury trial for Liming is scheduled for June 21.
Wildlife officers were investigating a deer poaching complaint in the area of Macedonia Road and Martinsville Road in the Martinsville area when the shooting occurred.
According to authorities, Liming exited the vehicle he was in, went into a wooded area where Behr was, and fired a shot at what he thought was a deer. After hearing someone scream, Liming found Behr, who yelled at him to call 911.
Liming allegedly ran out of the woods, told another suspect to call 911, then he “got nervous and fled the scene on foot.”
He later came out of the woods and he turned himself in to law enforcement officials.
Davis was believed to be driving the vehicle in which the three were traveling.
Behr was transported to University Hospital in Cincinnati where he underwent surgeries to treat his wounds.
