Warren man sentenced to 14 years for firing gunshot that hit sleeping woman in the head

By Ed Runyan | July 18, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

WARREN

A Trumbull County judge sentenced Antonio M. Price to 14 years in prison for firing an errant bullet outside the Olympic Inn tavern, hitting a woman in the head who was sleeping in a house next door.

Price, 27, of Arthur Drive Northwest, pleaded guilty Wednesday before Judge W. Wyatt McKay in common pleas court to aggravated robbery, improperly discharging a firearm into a home and felonious assault.

Price fired a shot from the parking lot of the Parkman Road Northwest tavern about 2 a.m. Aug. 4, 2012, hitting Pamela Dial, 44, causing her critical injuries.

The bullet passed through her bedroom’s wall and two pillows before hitting Dial’s head, but it didn’t enter her skull. Instead, it was found tangled in a pillow, prosecutors said.

Nonetheless, Dial remained in critical condition at a Cleveland hospital for several weeks after the shooting.

Terry Dial, her husband, has told court officials the injury reduced her speaking ability, and she continues to receive speech therapy and 24-hour care.

The Olympic Inn voluntarily closed after the incident, and the Ohio Division of Liquor Control in March denied the renewal of the tavern’s liquor license.

Price’s charges included some related to an incident at 4:30 a.m. Aug. 17 on Cranwood Drive Southwest in which Warren officers heard shots fired, then found Price and another man nearby.

Police found Price with a gun that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation later said was the same one used in the Olympic Inn shooting.

Price also implicated himself in the Olympic Inn shooting while talking to his co-defendant in the back of the Warren police cruiser Aug. 17 because the conversation was recorded, police said.

Price also earlier wrote a letter to Judge McKay and to Dial apologizing “for the pain and suffering I have caused,” saying he “reacted off of being angry and afraid for my life” the morning he fired the shot that hit Pamela Dial.

Price received the maximum prison sentence — 11 years — for the shooting of Pamela Dial, said Chris Becker, an assistant county prosecutor. The other three years of Price’s sentence are for using a firearm in commission of his crimes.

Price’s prison sentence for crimes he committed on Cranwood Drive will be served during the time he received for the Dial shooting.