DAYTON — The verdict in the case of a man accused of hitting his daughter with his truck before leading police on a chase that ended in a crash and shooting has been announced.
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The jury found James Skirvin guilty of most charges he was facing after deliberating for roughly 2.5 hours.
The only two times the judge said “not guilty” were for two counts of felonious assault, but the jury followed it up by finding Skirvin guilty on a lesser charge both times.
On top of conviction for the majority of charges, the jury also decided that the state did prove specifications on charges that will make Skirvin’s sentence more severe.
At one point during the reading of the verdict, an error was found in one of the verdict forms. Due to this, court proceedings were paused for a short time and the jury was sent back to correct the error.
As previously reported, Skirvin has been on trial this week for a series of events that took place in January 2024.
He took the stand on Wednesday and said he wanted to commit “suicide by cop” that day.
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After telling his brother he wanted to kill himself, he left his mobile home. He admitted on the stand to driving his truck “directly into the bench” that his daughter was sitting on and hit her.
From there, he drove off and was chased by police.
Skirvin testified he fired shots “in the air” from his shotgun during the chase and that he got shot three times during the pursuit.
“As I passed the officers, I do know that I took one in a leg, at least one in the arm, and one in [the] chest,” he said.
He then crashed head-on into a Trotwood police cruiser at U.S. 35 and Liscum Drive. After the crash, there was gunfire from police.
Several of the victims in Skirvin’s case were police officers, including Trotwood officer Michael Richardson. He was hurt when Skirvin crashed into his parked cruiser at the end of the chase.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Richardson was sitting behind News Center 7’s John Bedell during the reading of the verdict. Bedell reported he could hear some emotion from him when the judge started announcing the guilty verdicts.
Richardson told News Center 7 after that he didn’t want to talk on camera, but was glad to have this week over.
Skirvin will be sentenced in two weeks.
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