State v. Lindhorst

2026 Ohio 72
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 12, 2026
DocketCA2025-01-006
StatusPublished

This text of 2026 Ohio 72 (State v. Lindhorst) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lindhorst, 2026 Ohio 72 (Ohio Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Lindhorst, 2026-Ohio-72.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO

WARREN COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO, : CASE NO. CA2025-01-006 Appellee, : OPINION AND vs. : JUDGMENT ENTRY 1/12/2026 ERIC THADDEUS LINDHORST, :

Appellant. :

:

CRIMINAL APPEAL FROM WARREN COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS Case No. 24CR41751

David P. Fornshell, Warren County Prosecuting Attorney, and Kirsten A. Brandt, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Repper-Pagan Law, Ltd., and Christopher J. Pagan, for appellant.

____________ OPINION

M. POWELL, J.

{¶ 1} Appellant, Eric Thaddeus Lindhorst, appeals his conviction in the Warren

County Court of Common Pleas for kidnapping.

{¶ 2} On May 25, 2024, appellant and his wife, Natia Lindhorst ("Tia"), were the Warren CA2025-01-006

parents of a six-week-old baby ("Baby"). The responsibilities of caring for an infant

stressed appellant and Tia. On that day, as Tia was preparing to take Baby and have

lunch with friends, she and appellant got into an argument over her request that he clean

baby bottles. Tia and Baby left for lunch. They returned home around 5:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.,

and the quarreling resumed. Appellant told Tia that Baby was welcome home but that Tia

was not. Tia left the house with Baby. After a while Tia called appellant and sought to

resolve their argument. Appellant asked that Tia bring Baby home.

{¶ 3} Upon returning home, Tia did not feel that things between her and appellant

were resolved, and decided to stay at a hotel with Baby. As Tia began packing, she laid

Baby on a playmat while she retrieved clothes from Baby's room. When Tia returned,

appellant was holding Baby. Despite Tia's requests, appellant refused to give her Baby,

telling her that she was in no condition to care for Baby. While holding Baby, appellant

pushed Tia out of the way and left the bedroom, retrieved his firearm, and went

downstairs. Tia and appellant continued arguing. Appellant eventually climbed into Tia's

car and began driving away with Baby on his lap. Tia was able to jump in the backseat

before appellant could drive away. Appellant drove a short distance down the street and

stopped. Tia exited the car. Appellant then returned home and went into the house. Tia

and appellant continued to argue, and appellant refused Tia's requests to give Baby to

her. During the argument, appellant pointed his firearm at Tia and told her to "back up."

{¶ 4} Tia texted a neighbor for help. The neighbor observed Tia and appellant

arguing outside their house. Tia was pleading with appellant not to take Baby. However,

appellant placed Baby in her car seat, placed the car seat on the back seat of his truck

without securing it, and drove away. During an ensuing conversation with her neighbor,

Tia mentioned that appellant had a firearm. A short time later, appellant returned. As Tia

was talking to appellant through the open truck window, the neighbor heard Tia ask

-2- Warren CA2025-01-006

appellant to "please put the gun down." Alarmed, the neighbor told her husband to call 9-

1-1.

{¶ 5} Law enforcement officers responded to a dispatch of a domestic violence

incident involving a weapon. They were also advised there was a baby in a white pickup

truck. Two Warren County Sheriff Deputies were the first officers on the scene. As they

arrived, appellant was in his truck on the street talking with Tia through the truck window.

As the deputies pulled up behind appellant's truck and exited the patrol car, appellant

immediately drove away. The deputies activated the patrol car's overhead lights and siren

and followed appellant down the road for approximately a quarter mile, at which time

appellant stopped his truck. The deputies exited their vehicle with their weapons drawn.

At their commands, appellant turned off the truck but immediately became otherwise non-

compliant.

{¶ 6} The deputies instructed appellant to put his hands out of the truck's window

and to not move them. Appellant placed only his left hand out of the window and kept

moving and concealing his right hand. As a deputy repeatedly commanded appellant to

put his hands out of the truck's window, appellant continued to move his right hand and,

at times, concealed both hands inside the truck. In the meantime, other law enforcement

officers responded to the scene. Once back up units were on the scene, appellant

repeatedly refused officers' commands to leave Baby in the truck and exit the vehicle.

Appellant eventually got Baby out of her car seat from the back floorboard of the truck

and held her. Appellant then called to the officers, "Are you going to point guns at me

while I'm holding my baby?" Officers repeatedly directed appellant to "put the baby down

and exit the vehicle." Appellant remained in the truck holding Baby.

{¶ 7} Appellant eventually exited the truck holding Baby in his arms in front of his

chest. Appellant repeatedly refused officers' commands to put Baby back in the truck, set

-3- Warren CA2025-01-006

her down, or turn the infant over to one of the deputies. Appellant responded, "Absolutely

not." Officers were unable to tase appellant to take him into custody because he was

holding Baby. Being unable to obtain appellant's compliance with officers' commands,

Sergeant Joseph Gray called for the assistance of the Tactical Response Unit. After

appellant continued to refuse commands to surrender, Tactical Response Unit members

rushed appellant and held him upright while another member removed Baby from

appellant's arms. Appellant resisted arrest, and Baby had to be forcibly removed from his

grasp. Baby was crying, was hot, sweaty, and wet, and had red marks and a scratch on

her head. A subsequent search of the truck yielded a loaded 9 mm handgun and a

magazine in the center console.

{¶ 8} On June 24, 2024, a Warren County Grand Jury indicted appellant with

kidnapping, carrying a concealed weapon, improperly handling firearms in a motor

vehicle, inducing panic, obstructing official business, endangering children, resisting

arrest, and two counts of aggravated menacing. The kidnapping, carrying a concealed

weapon, and improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle charges were each

accompanied by a firearm-forfeiture specification. The State filed a bill of particulars on

October 30, 2024. Appellant waived his right to a jury, and the case proceeded to a bench

trial on November 8, 2024. At the outset of the trial, the State nollied the counts of carrying

a concealed weapon and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle. Tia, the

neighbor and her husband, and several law enforcement officers dispatched to the scene

testified on behalf of the State. At the close of the State's case-in-chief, the trial court

dismissed the firearm-forfeiture specification accompanying the kidnapping count under

Crim.R. 29 but otherwise denied appellant's Crim.R. 29 motion. Subsequently, appellant

presented the testimony of character witnesses but did not testify on his own behalf.

{¶ 9} The trial court found appellant guilty of kidnapping, obstructing official

-4- Warren CA2025-01-006

business, aggravated menacing regarding Baby, endangering children, and resisting

arrest.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2026 Ohio 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lindhorst-ohioctapp-2026.