43
Howland man convicted of assault, trespass, cleared of other charges
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Christopher Dellick could get up to 91/2 years in prison after a jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court found him guilty of felonious assault and trespassing into a habitation.
The jury said the Howland man was not guilty of kidnapping or abducting his wife from their Clearview Drive home in Champion last October, but it apparently believed he cut her leg before driving her to Bristol Township in a failed attempt to pick up their daughter.
Dellick, 36, will be sentenced July 15 in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan. He also could get as little as two years in prison.
Dellick, who graduated from Howland High School and later served in the military, stood fairly still while the two guilty verdicts were read; his wife, Rebecca, held her head in her hands.
The two told vastly different stories of what happened Oct. 17, with Rebecca saying Christopher choked her unconscious three times, then cut her leg while wearing gloves and put the knife in her hands so her DNA would be on it.
Christopher said he came home and found his wife in the bathtub barely conscious with a knife wound to her thigh. He said he stopped the flow of blood with a towel.
After that, he says he took his wife to Bristol Township to pick up their daughter because Rebecca insisted.
The jury deliberated about three hours before announcing it had reached a verdict.
Dellick was charged with aggravated burglary for the things that happened at Rebecca’s ex-husband’s house in Bristol Township, but the jury also had the option to convict him of the lesser offense of trespassing into a habitation, and that’s what it did.
Witnesses said Christopher Dellick got out of the car at the home in Bristol Township, then went to the door to retrieve the couple’s 5-year-old daughter.
But Rebecca got out of the car and yelled, “Call 911. He cut me,” witnesses testified. That led to a struggle at the front door and the allegation that Christopher forced his way into the house.
Chuck Morrow, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, cross-examined Christopher Dellick extensively, asking about an engagement ring and flowers Christopher Dellick ordered in the weeks before the assault and suggesting that Christopher’s relationship with another woman might have been a factor in the attack.
Rebecca Dellick, 43, filed for divorce from Christopher Dellick in 2011, but the case was dismissed in 2013.