'He wanted out of there': Man who met murder suspect said Robert Hamman acted suspiciously
The first people believed to have seen Robert Len Hamman after he left his father's house last Christmas Eve told jurors the man gave them a bad feeling.
Hamman, 54, is accused of shooting his father to death on Dec. 23, 2022, and has been charged with six felonies, including murder. Terrence L. Hamman was found dead that afternoon in his Shiloh home at the age of 76.
Prosecutors say the victim's son stole the man's truck and drove it from the village in northern Richland County to a remote portion of Wyandot County near the village of Nevada.
Home that day were Anna Swartz and Ken Stewart, a couple who have lived together on Crawford-Wyandot Road for two decades.
Both testified Friday morning in the courtroom of Richland County Common Pleas Judge Brent Robinson.
'Another idiot stuck in the snowdrift'
The day was memorable for the couple from the start because of a 3-foot snowdrift that had formed over the road in front of their house.
"It was a Level 3 snow emergency," Stewart said. "The roads were closed."
One of their neighbors, though, had bucked the rules and tried driving. Their black truck got stuck in front of the couple's home. They pulled it out themselves.
A few minutes later, another truck drove down the road. It, too, lost control.
"I told Ken there was another idiot stuck in the snowdrift," Swartz said, drawing a laugh from the defendant. "It was so bad. They shouldn't have been out."
'My senses just went off'
The couple watched the red Dodge 1500 from their window. After a half hour, there was still no movement from inside. Stewart said he finally decided to go check on the driver.
While Stewart was getting dressed to go outside, Robert Hamman got out of his father's truck and knocked on the couple's door.
"I usually don't let people in the house," Swartz said. "But I did that day and as soon as I did I yelled for Ken because my senses just went off."
The woman's longtime boyfriend told the defendant to wait for him outside. Both identified Hamman in court Friday as the man who was stuck in front of their house.
'He just wanted out of there. He wanted gone.'
Because of the snowdrifts that form in front of their home, the couple told jurors that people get stuck there every winter. Stewart said he pulls at least three vehicles out himself each year.
He always makes stranded drivers attach the tow hooks themselves so that he can avoid any liability if their vehicle is damaged.
The man said Hamman first wrapped the tow strap around the truck's front wheel, then the step bar that ran beneath the door.
Stewart said he refused to pull the truck with either configuration because he feared both would cause significant damage.
It was during that conversation that a snow plow came down the road and encountered the two men and their parked trucks. The defendant approached that driver.
"He wanted the township snow plow to push this truck with the blade," Stewart said. "That would have destroyed the truck."
The plow driver refused.
"I knew darn well it wasn't his truck," Stewart said. "Nobody would want to destroy a new Dodge truck."
With no way to get the truck out of the snow, Hamman offered money for a ride to either the nearest town or one of the neighbor's houses — any neighbor.
"He didn't know any of my neighbors," Stewart said. "He didn't even know where he was at. He just wanted out of there. He wanted gone. I knew something was fishy."
'I figured it was a stolen truck.'
Stewart agreed to drive Hamman to La Fragua, a Mexican restaurant north of Nevada in rural Wyandot County, because he wanted the man away from his house.
He then told his girlfriend to call 911 and report the man to police.
"Nothing added up," Stewart said. "I figured it was a stolen truck."
Listening over the radio that morning was Austin Tschanen, a deputy with the Wyandot County Sheriff's Office.
He had been tuned in to the Ohio Highway Patrol radio channel earlier that day and heard a "be on the lookout" call about a 2021 red Dodge 1500 wanted in connection with a murder.
The deputy knew it was a longshot, but he decided to treat this call as though it was connected, just in case.
He stopped by La Fragua. Waitresses told him nobody matching his description had been inside, so he drove to the marooned truck.
"When I got to the vehicle, it matched the description," Tschanen said.
He reported the truck, then guarded it until deputies from Richland County could recover it as evidence.
It took four more days for Hamman to resurface outside La Fragua, according to testimony from Trent Shoemaker, who was deputy with Wyandot County.
Shoemaker pulled into the restaurant's parking lot on Dec. 28 and noticed Hamman standing between two cars. He arrested the man without incident.
"He was starting to experience pain in his feet," Shoemaker said. "I was advised later it may have been frostbite."
By the end of testimonies Friday afternoon, the judge told jurors they could go home for the weekend. The trial will resume 9 a.m. Monday.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Witnesses say murder suspect Hamman tried to ditch his father's truck
