Randolph man pleads guilty in shooting near Portage County Fairgrounds last summer

A Randolph man charged with shooting a man with a shotgun outside his home near the Portage County Fairgrounds last summer has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Kenneth D. Winters, 37, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree felony aggravated assault in Portage County Court of Common Pleas on Friday.

In a plea deal, the charge was amended down from second-degree felony assault with a firearm specification, the only charge in a grand jury indictment. The amended charge does not include a firearm specification.

Sentencing is pending completion of a pre-sentencing investigation and report by the court's adult probation department. Winters could be sentenced to as much as 18 months in prison, according to court records.

What happened in shooting near Portage County Fairgrounds

The Portage County Sheriff's Office said on Aug. 16, a woman driving on Fairgrounds Road reported seeing a man, later identified as a 41-year-old Brimfield Township resident, injured in a ditch by the side of the road near Winters' home.

According to a sheriff's report, the man initially misidentified himself when he told a sheriff's deputy that Winters had shot him in the shoulder with a shotgun. EMS then took the man to UH Portage Medical Center for treatment.

Douglas Kehres, Winters' attorney, said Tuesday he does not believe Winters should have been indicted on such a serious charge.

"The facts of the case are that the, quote, victim was walking down the road in the middle of the day high on drugs, gets in my client's car, tries to steal it," said Kehres. "[Winters] runs out there and he backs up and knocks him down with the car and there's a big kind of a hullabaloo, I guess would be the way to say it, and he shoots at him. I mean, that's what happened."

Kehres previously said Winters did not know the man before the incident.

The sheriff's office said it executed a search warrant of Winters' property, but he was not found. An unidentified person had reported Winters set up booby traps, including deep holes and explosives, around the property, but the sheriff's office did not report finding any booby traps.

"All this stuff about some guy with booby traps and yada, yada, yada, yada, yada; none of that was real," said Kehres.

Randolph man found after search by Portage County SWAT, Ohio State Highway Patrol

With the help of the Portage County SWAT team, Alliance police and Ohio State Highway Patrol special response teams, and highway patrol air support, the woods around the property were searched. Winters was found later in the evening and taken into custody.

Winters was unarmed when found, but a shotgun was located on his front porch, the sheriff's office said.

"Yeah, my guy got scared," said Kehres. "He ran back in the woods, but 10 months later, when they finally interviewed [the Brimfield man], he admitted he was in the car and that's what he was doing."

Kehres said the Brimfield man has a criminal history and is currently under indictment for allegedly assaulting a police officer in Portage County.

According to Portage County court records, the most recent court actions involving the man include being sentenced to a year in prison in late June after he violated probation stemming from felony trespass in a habitation and harassment by an inmate, charges he pleaded guilty to.

In a separate case that is still pending, a grand jury indicted the man this past April with fourth-degree assault on a peace officer for allegedly biting a University Hospitals police officer's finger while they were at UH Portage Medical Center earlier that month.

Court records for that case show an Akron address for the man.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Randolph man pleads guilty in shooting near Portage County Fairgrounds