Posted on | November 5, 2025 | No Comments
Say hello to 35-year-old Emerson Jeffrey. In November 2021, when he came before a judge in Guernsey County, Ohio, he’d already had five prior felony convictions, but the prosecutor and the defense attorney had a plea agreement that would have kept Jeffrey out of prison. Why? Because, your honor, the perp had a history of mental illness:
A man who confessed to authorities he was trying to get law enforcement to shoot and kill him during a pursuit on Interstate 77 earlier this year, was sentenced to four years in prison Monday in the Guernsey County Common Pleas Court.
Emerson Jeffrey, 31, of Jefferson, previously plead guilty to single counts of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, a third-degree felony, and an amended count of obstructing official business, a fifth-degree felony, as part of a negotiated plea.
The plea agreement requested Judge Daniel G. Padden impose a three-year sentence for the failure to comply conviction and a consecutive year for the obstructing conviction, and suspend the prison term in favor of five years of community control sanctions.
Citing a need to protect the public from future crimes by Jeffrey and other criminals, Padden ignored the request and ordered the defendant to serve the full prison term.
“These types of cases are difficult,” said Padden, while acknowledging Jeffrey’s long history of mental health issues. “They are hard and they have competing interests. But, the prison term is not suspended because of the need to protect the public.”
The judge told Jeffrey that Ohio law requires him to first protect the public from future crimes and then punish the offender and promote their effective rehabilitation.
Padden pointed to lengthy criminal history in Ohio and Florida as a factor in determining the sentence.
“This is his sixth felony case,” said Padden.
Somebody please ask Judge Padden to run for Congress. He’s a former prosecutor and obviously understands the public safety aspect of law enforcement better than most judges do, and we need somebody at the national level who can make America understand what I keep telling y’all: Crazy People Are Dangerous. (This is the 55th time I’ve used that phrase in a headline, because crazy people keep doing things to prove me right.)
We return to that November 2021 story:
Prior offenses reportedly included multiple theft charges, a burglary conviction and drug-related offenses in both states. Jeffrey served a prison sentence for the third-degree felony burglary conviction in Hardin County. . . .
In court Monday, Jeffrey admitted he told State Highway Patrol Trooper Adam Masinelli that officers would have to shoot and kill him after initially being stopped for a traffic violation.
“He said please don’t do this, but I drove away,” Jeffrey told the judge.
Masinelli and other law enforcement pursued Jeffrey south at approximately 65 mph until he allegedly accelerated to 109 mph upon approaching a spike strip deployed by a trooper.
Jeffrey said he was trying to harm himself.
“I was only trying to get them to kill me,” said Jeffrey in court. “If I was trying to hurt anybody else, I would have swerved at the cop instead of swerving to hit the spike strip. I wanted to flip my car to hurt myself and I jerked the steering wheel after hitting the spikes, but it just spun on the road.”
The vehicle slid off the right side of I-77 and came to rest in a wooded area along the highway where Jeffrey refused to exit the car while surrounded by troopers and sheriff’s deputies from Guernsey and Noble counties.
After crashing, Jeffrey consumed a significant amount of pills before finally exiting the vehicle some time later.
But instead of surrendering, Jeffrey emerged brandishing a knife and held authorities at bay until a Taser was eventually used to gain control of him approximately three hours after the crash.
“I really was on a mission to die,” said Jeffrey.
(Alas, he was unsuccessful.)
Guernsey County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kent Biegler and defense attorney Matthew Mollica asked Paden to suspend the maximum four-year sentence in favor of community control sanctions Monday.
Both attorneys cited Jeffrey’s lengthy mental health history and the need for treatment as reasons for the request. . . .
Mollica explained Jeffrey’s mental condition in the days following his arrest.
“He stabbed himself with a pen at the initial hearing and he wrapped a cord around himself in an attempt to harm himself,” said Mollica of his client’s desire to die in January. “He had toilet paper jammed tightly in his ears at the jail to stop the voices.”
Mollica told Padden his client is better because he is taking his medication and attending mental health counseling appointments.
“I fear if he goes to prison and then gets out, what happens then,” said Mollica. “He is not the same person as when this offense occurred. Give him a chance.”
Jeffrey also asked Padden to give him a chance when called upon by the judge.
“I have insurance to get meds and a place to live with food and someone who loves me,” said an emotional Jeffrey. “Please give me a chance to show you.”
(As we will learn — patience, dear reader — the judge was wise in rejecting these pleadings.)
Jeffrey said he started drinking alcohol at age 6 and smoking marijuana with his mother at age 7. He was removed from his home at age 11 after allegedly being sexually assaulted by his father, according to court testimony.
He was reportedly in and out of multiple foster homes and group homes over the next several years.
Following the arrest, Mollica filed a motion seeking a competency evaluation and filed a not guilty by reason of insanity plea on March 4.
Dr. Daniel Hrinko of the Forensic Diagnostic Center of Region 9 determined Jeffrey was competent to stand trial following an evaluation, according to report revealed during a competency hearing on May 25.
An initial indictment of felonious assault, a second-degree felony, returned by a grand jury on Feb. 18 was amended to the obstructing official business on Aug. 19 when Jeffrey entered the negotiated pleas.
A sentencing hearing slated for Oct. 27 was continued to Monday after Jeffrey was arrested and charged with persistent disorderly conduct following an altercation with a female relative four days earlier in Belmont County.
Jeffrey was incarcerated in the Belmont County Jail at the time of the sentencing hearing, but was released after pleading no contest to the fourth-degree misdemeanor offense.
He was sentenced in Belmont County Western Court to 30 days in jail with four days credit for time served and 26 days suspended. He was ordered to pay a $200 fine and court costs totaling $105.
Did you catch that? While he was out on bail awaiting trial for an armed standoff with police, Jeffrey got himself arrested for “an altercation with a female relative.” Even his own family members have to call the cops to protect themselves from this dangerous psycho. The testimony about his horrific childhood? Some may consider that an argument for leniency, but it could just as easily be interpreted as evidence indicating how unlikely it is that Jeffrey could ever be rehabilitated. If your mother’s a negligent dopehead and your father is a child molester, well, the acorn seldom falls far from the oak, does it? Some grad student in criminal justice might try researching the family histories of criminals like this, to discover how many of their relatives are also habitual felons.
Anyway, the point is, Judge Padden rejected the plea deal that would have turned Jeffrey loose on a suspended sentence and instead sentenced him to four years in prison. Jeffrey got out a few weeks early, it seems, because he was a passenger in the back seat of a car that got pulled over by cops last Friday night in Lima, Ohio:
The Lima Police Department has released additional information about the officer-involved shooting incident Oct. 31 that left an officer injured and the suspect transported to Columbus for medical treatment. This information includes the identities of the officers involved and both dashboard and body camera footage of the incident.
The shooting took place during a traffic stop at 10:40 p.m. Friday at St. John’s Avenue and Second Street. The footage of that traffic stop was released during a press conference Monday evening at the Lima Municipal Building, with the faces of two other occupants of the vehicle being blurred out and portions of audio muted. Body camera footage was taken from the camera of Patrolman Bryce Metz, the officer injured during the shooting.
As seen on the dashboard video, three officers approached the vehicle, with Metz approaching from the passenger side, a standard procedure for situations with multiple vehicle occupants, according to Lima Police Chief Curtis Hile.
“There were three occupants in the car, so more officers arrived for standard safety with more occupants in the car,” he said. “We typically have more officers try to respond.”
According to Metz’s body camera video, Emerson Jeffrey, 35, who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle, called to get Metz’s attention.
“I’m about to do something just cause that’s who I am, bro,” he said before motioning to the two people in the front seats and telling Metz to have them “get out of here.”
After Metz asked Jeffrey why and did not receive an answer, he told another officer to get Jeffrey out of the vehicle, pointing at him and saying, “Get him out.” Immediately afterward, shots began coming out from the vehicle hitting Metz and causing him to fall to the ground.
“Shots fired, shots fired! I’m hit! I’m hit!” Metz said.
Shots could be heard in both videos as other cruisers quickly arrived at the scene. Commands were issued for Jeffrey to show his hands and for the occupants to get out of the car and get down on the ground.
“He’s got the gun in his hand,” an officer could be heard saying on the dashboard camera video. “He’s in the back seat.” . . .
Commands were issued for Jeffrey to put his hands up. The video footage then recorded additional shots being fired, prompting several gunshots from police at the vehicle.
Once officers determined the threat from Jeffrey was neutralized, officers began life-saving procedures on both Jeffrey and Metz, according to releases from the police department.
Speaking at Monday’s press conference, Hile said Metz was released earlier in the day from Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Medical Center. Jeffrey remains in hospital under law enforcement supervision at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. . . .
Hile expressed pride in how his officers conducted themselves during the incident, especially Metz, whom Hile praised for remaining calm even after taking gunfire.
“I’m incredibly proud of how (Metz) responded, and I think we’re incredibly lucky that we still have him with us,” he said.
How crazy is this? Jeffrey had just gotten out of prison, and is not legally able to possess firearms, yet he’s riding around with a pistol and gets in a shootout with cops after they pull him over. The investigation into this shooting will need to determine how Jeffrey got that gun. My guess is that he either stole it himself or bought it from someone else who had stolen it. Most arguments for gun control laws completely overlook this factor: Imposing new restrictions on the legal sale of firearms will have no impact on criminals, who will always be able to get guns by stealing them. Stealing is one of the things criminals do, you know.
It’s likely that shooting a cop will land Jeffrey in prison for a long time — 20 years at a minimum, I’d guess — but there are still a lot of lunatics running around out there. Virginia just elected a psychopath as their Attorney General, and a Communist got elected mayor of New York City. Crazy people are dangerous — and they vote Democrat.
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