Greer guilty in July 2021 robbery, assault

Nov. 3—LIMA — A jury found a man guilty of assaulting and robbing two people on July 12, 2021 after under an hour of deliberation on Wednesday afternoon.

Tarockis Greer, 31, is convicted of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery — first-degree felonies — and two counts of second-degree felonious assault. All charges have firearm specifications.

According to Tuesday testimony, Greer entered Jodi Troy's home on Wayne Street with Durand Tyson, his co-defendant, and when Tyson and Troy were in the basement, he went upstairs to where Jason High was sleeping and assaulted him and stole money and his phone. High said that Greer shot at him as he was leaving.

Lima Police Department Detective Steve Stechschulte said the bullet hole and its end location in the wall of the neighbor's house across the street corroborated this. He said it appeared that the gun was fired at about chest height.

According to testimony, after Greer assaulted and robbed High, he went downstairs and encountered Troy, who came up from the basement to see what was going on. According to police body camera footage, Greer stuck the gun against Troy's back and she cowered on the floor.

Troy said in the video Greer hit her and shot at the living room floor before stealing money and her phone. Tyson testified Tuesday that Greer convinced him to leave with him and the two drove off in a white van.

Greer testified Wednesday in his defense that he has never entered Troy's home and that he's never met any of its occupants.

Greer said that he noticed Tyson had a gun on him and that the man is a member of the Bloods gang. He said the two met up with a man named Edward and he waited outside the home on July 12, 2021 after the two went inside.

Greer said he'd "dozed off" in the car when Tyson banged on the window to be let in, but before Greer could unlock the doors, the man had forced a rear window out and jumped in. Robbie Blevins, who testified Tuesday that he ran out of the home when he heard shots, said that he saw Greer jump in the window, not Tyson.

Greer said that as the group was driving, Tyson opened a door and threw a phone from the car. He said once he and Tyson arrived at Greer's children's mother's house, they went inside and Tyson asked if he could leave his gun there.

Greer said he told the man no because he had children, but after Tyson had left he told him that he'd "stashed it" under the porch so Greer said he moved it into a ceiling tile to avoid his kids finding it. He said the gun later fell through the ceiling when he wasn't there and was given to police by his children's mother at their request.

Lima Police Identification Officer Greg Adkins testified that he found a bullet hole in the floor in the living room, along with a shell casing. He found a bullet hole in the upstairs bedroom and a shell casing there as well.

Testing by Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations scientist Alex Miller found that the shell casings found in the home were fired from the gun in Greer's home. The bullet lodged in the neighbor's wall was found to likely have come from the same gun.

Stechschulte said in talking to High, he identified Greer as the suspect, leading him to put a wire on Dwayne Wilson-Smith.

In a recording from the wire, Greer told the man that he "did the robbery" and that he hit the two occupants of the home with the gun. He said that he tossed the stolen cell phones into a river.

In his testimony, Greer said that he did say all that in the recording, but he was simply "talking mess" and trying to seem tough using what he'd learned on the street.

"I was just acting like Mr. Big Shot," Greer said.

Stechschulte said Troy identified the man who came into her home after Tyson as having braids. He said Greer had braids at the time of his arrest.

Troy was unable to say exactly who robbed and assaulted her, but Stechschulte said the information she gave, including an approximate height which matched Greer, pointed to him as the culprit.

In cross-examination, Allen County Prosecuting Attorney Juergen Waldick said that Greer learned in April what eveidence the state would present at trial and "fashioned [his] testimony" around it.

A pre-sentencing investigation will be completed before sentencing on Dec. 6 at 8:30 a.m.