State v. Pettaway

2025 Ohio 2260
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in State v. Pettaway. Read the opinion of the Court — 2025 Ohio 1181
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided June 27, 2025·No. L-24-1154·Published

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Pettaway, 2025-Ohio-2260.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT LUCAS COUNTY

State of Ohio/City of Toledo Court of Appeals No. {48}L-24-1154

Appellee Trial Court No. CRB2309247

v.

Edward E. Pettaway DECISION AND JUDGMENT

Appellant Decided: June 27, 2025

*****

Tyler Naud Jechura, Esq., for appellant.

Rebecca Facey, Esq., Prosecutor and Jimmie L. Jones, Esq., Assistant Prosecutor, for appellee.

MAYLE, J.

{¶ 1} Appellant, Edward Pettaway, appeals the May 24, 2024 judgment of the

Toledo Municipal Court sentencing him following his conviction of domestic violence

and assault. For the following reasons, we affirm. I. Background and Facts

{¶ 2} Pettaway was charged by complaint with one count each of domestic

violence in violation of R.C. 2919.25(A) and assault in violation of R.C. 2903.13(A),

both first-degree misdemeanors. The charges arose from allegations that Pettaway

slammed his wife, G.P., on the floor and ripped her glued-on wig from her head.

Pettaway’s case was tried to the court. At trial, the city presented the testimony of

G.P. Pettaway presented the testimony of Toledo Police Department officers Richard

Wrobel and Bradley Wittmann and testified in his own behalf.

{¶ 3} G.P. testified that she and Pettaway got into an argument on September 18,

2023. Before Pettaway started the argument, she was sitting on the couch doing nothing

to him. He came up to her while she was on the couch, began yelling at her, and told her

to get out of the house. After Pettaway approached her, G.P. recalled him “snatching”

her off the couch, “[k]ind of throwing [her] around on the floor[,]” and putting his knee in

her back and “snatch[ing]” her wig, which was glued on, off of her head. She elaborated

that he was “grabbing [her] by [her] t-shirt and yanking [her] to get off the couch.” When

Pettaway pulled her off the couch, she yelled at him to stop and tried to get him to let go

of her by “[p]ushing him back off.” She was also “swinging” at him but was unsure if

she hit him. She fell to the floor as she tried to push him. Once she was on the floor,

Pettaway “constantly just kind of drug [her] back and forth.” As a result, G.P.’s shirt and

bra were torn, she had bruising on her left arm, hair around her hairline was missing, and

her shoulder and knee hurt. Pettaway pulling off her wig was painful.

2. {¶ 4} During these events, G.P. called 911. The city played the call at trial. G.P.

was unable to speak when she called, but the call picked up some background noise. G.P.

said that the noises on the call were Pettaway “throwing [her] around[,]” a dog barking,

and her and Pettaway yelling. Most of the call is unintelligible. At one point, G.P. asks

if she can get some of her things and leave, which leads to her and Pettaway fighting

about who should actually leave the house.

{¶ 5} After this encounter, G.P. went down the stairs to get away from Pettaway

and asked him if she could get their son and some things and leave. Pettaway let her go

upstairs to get their son. While she was upstairs, she put on a headscarf and texted her

father. When she came back down, Pettaway said that he would leave the house, but he

changed his mind shortly after. When G.P. again said that she was leaving, Pettaway told

her that she could not and “slammed” the front door. She tried to run out a back door, but

Pettaway also “slammed it shut when [she] opened it.” After that, Pettaway began

yelling again. He pushed G.P. while she was holding their child, so G.P. went back to the

couch to prevent him from hurting the baby while trying to hurt her. Once she was

sitting, Pettaway “snatched” her watch off of her wrist and took her phone. He then went

downstairs to the gun safe, took out some guns, put them on the stairs, “lifted [one] in the

air[,]” told G.P. “this is all your fault” and said, “I’m sorry son.” When he said that, G.P.

ran out of the house through the back door, ran through neighbors’ yards, and hid by the

side of a neighbor’s house until she saw the police coming.

3. {¶ 6} When she saw the police arrive, G.P. walked back to her house. Officers

were talking to her father, and when she approached, they talked to her. The officers did

not take any photographs of G.P.’s injuries. However, G.P. took several pictures later

that day, including two that she took while she was at the emergency room. The pictures

show a tear in the collar of her shirt, redness or bruising on her shoulder, redness on her

cheek, and her holding a handful of hair.

{¶ 7} On cross-examination, G.P. testified that the officers who responded to her

house did not arrest Pettaway or charge him with any crimes. She told one of the

responding officers that the bruises on her arm were “new” and that Pettaway had “ripped

[her] hair off[,]” but did not point out any other injuries, say that she was in pain, or tell

the officers that Pettaway had lifted her off of the couch or “slammed [her] repeatedly[.]”

G.P. went to the emergency room that day.

{¶ 8} While Pettaway was pulling on her and she was on the floor, she was

“kicking and flailing [her] arm to have him let [her] go[,]” but claimed that she only

touched Pettaway “[i]n self-defense.” She did not know what happened to her wig.

{¶ 9} On September 21, 2023, three days after the incident, G.P. went to the

police station to get a copy of the report from September 18. When the officer on duty

could not find a report, someone from internal affairs told G.P. to file a report herself.

She reported the events from September 18 to the duty officer, who decided to file

charges against Pettaway. She claimed that she told the duty officer “the full story.

Because the [responding] officer, on the scene, cut [her] off” and she did not “get to tell

4. him the full story.” She did not tell the duty officer about or give him the pictures she

took. She admitted that the pictures did not have timestamps.

{¶ 10} G.P. denied that (1) she had “planned this situation, between [her] and Mr.

Pettaway, in a[n] attempt to convict him of a crime”; (2) she wanted Pettaway to be

convicted of domestic violence because of their relationship issues; (3) she told the duty

officer at the police department a different story than she told the officers at her house;

(4) her wig was on under the headscarf she was wearing in the body cam video; (5) she

damaged the house’s front door by hitting it with a brick; (6) she was ever aggressive

with or hit Pettaway before this incident; or (7) she hit Pettaway when their son was

present.

{¶ 11} During G.P.’s testimony, the city played the body camera video of Wrobel,

one of the responding officers. In the video, Pettaway explains that he needed someone

to come get him because he had gone through too much with G.P. After listening to

Pettaway’s complaints—which did not address the specifics of his and G.P.’s fight that

day—Wrobel concludes that “there’s not a whole lot for [the officers] to do here. You

guys are just arguing, and she left.” He advises Pettaway to stay somewhere else for a

night or two if G.P. returns to the house and is argumentative. As G.P. is walking back

toward the house, Pettaway tells the officer about her torn shirt and that he and G.P. “got

into a shoving match” but he “didn’t hit her.”

{¶ 12} G.P.

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