MILLERSBURG — Despite being repeatedly warned not to do so, an 81-year-old Akron man time and again pursued a Holmes County woman — texting her, calling her and trespassing on her property.
His actions culminated in the filing of several criminal charges stemming from incidents occurring between April and July; and, following several hours of testimony Thursday morning, Dalton Smith was found guilty of two counts of criminal trespassing and two counts of telephone harassment.
Holmes County Municipal Court Judge Andrew Hyde, who made the finding, scheduled sentencing for Aug. 23, at which time he said he would consider input from the victim. In total, Smith, 3826 Motz Drive, faces up to 14 months in jail for the crimes.
Pending sentencing, Smith …show more content…
When he complained about his inability to “hear” the woman's testimony, Hyde observed, “The bailiff is not blocking the sound, she's blocking you so (the victim) doesn't have to see you.”
The woman said she has told Smith repeatedly to not visit or contact her. She said she did so by phone, text, in person and by mail. She said she called the sheriff's office several times to file reports about Smith ignoring her requests. She did say Smith does not have a good memory and may have forgotten being asked to stay away.
She read through a series of images of text messages from Smith in which he discusses his love for her and her dog, her presumed love for him, religion, government and legal issues, which, by virtue of the context, suggest Smith's belief the criminal charges against him were little more than the consequence of a lover's quarrel, a resolution to which could be reached outside of court.
She said Smith left so many messages on her voicemail it no longer accepted outside messages. She said she was forced to get a new phone number to avoid his calls and notes the harassment caused by Smith affected not only her, but her ailing and elderly