Jury finds Irby guilty of firing at Hubbard cop

By Ed Runyan | January 10, 2015 at 12:02a.m.

WARREN

A jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court found Jeff Irby, 26, of Youngstown and Indianapolis, guilty Friday of firing gunshots at a Hubbard police officer last October while fleeing from a traffic stop.

The jury deliberated about 30 minutes before deciding Irby was guilty of all charges — felonious assault involving a police officer, resisting arrest, being a felon in possession of a firearm, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, tampering with evidence and carrying a concealed weapon.

He could get about 25 years in prison when Judge Andrew Logan sentences him Jan. 27. He turned down a plea deal offered to him last month calling for 15 years in prison.

Patrolman D.J. Dripps testified Wednesday that he made a traffic stop on a car at the Circle K store on West Liberty Street at 11:45 a.m. Oct. 14. Within moments, the passenger door opened, and a man took off running through the back yards on Hager Street, so Dripps chased him on foot while another officer secured the driver.

At some point in the chase, the man turned part way back toward Dripps and fired between three and seven times at him, but the officer took cover behind a tree and wasn’t injured.

Police officers from Hubbard and a variety of other departments flooded the area, and Irby was arrested about 30 minutes later by Police Chief James Taafe and Safety Service Director Louis Carsone, a former police officer, not far away.

David Rouzzo of the Ohio Public Defender’s office, Irby’s attorney, raised numerous questions about why police were unable to find any shell casings to prove that any gunshots were fired. Police officers searched, as well as volunteer metal- detector enthusiasts.

Gabe Wildman, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, suggested that ground cover from leaves at that time of the year would have added to the difficulty of finding shell casings in the grass. Dripps noted that residents walked through the yards for about 20 minutes before police were able to secure the scene with crime-scene tape.

Two residents of Hager Street, as well as Carsone and Sgt. Howard Haynie, testified to hearing several gunshots at about the time of the traffic stop. Carsone and Haynie were nearby because their offices are only about a block from where the shots were fired.

Irby did not take the stand, and Rouzzo did not call any other defense witnesses.