WARREN — A jury found Michael R. Derr, 33, of Liberty, not guilty Tuesday of two counts of felonious assault, but guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two misdemeanor counts of domestic violence at the end of a two-day trial in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Derr and the mother of his child both testified Tuesday regarding her allegations that Derr drove into the back of her car in the Liberty Plaza parking lot Nov. 10 after they argued and she left their home on Mansell Drive with their 6-month-old son. Derr will be sentenced later. He could get several years in prison.

She testified that Derr followed her in his car, resulting in her pulling into the plaza and the two cars stopping beside each other as the argument continued.

Defense attorney Aaron Meikle questioned the woman as to why she did not call police as she was driving away from their home if she was scared of Derr, and Meikle questioned her as to why she didn’t call police from the parking lot.

In both cases, she said it was because she was scared of him and because there was no time to make such a call.

Meikle asked her to walk him through the part where Derr hit her car. She said there was an open parking spot in front of her. She drove forward toward that spot because Derr was yelling profanities at her.

“After I pulled my car forward, that is when he whipped his car around and tried to block me in there,” she said. “When I pulled forward, he came forward and went right in front of my car. He turned right in front of my car.” He was still yelling at her.

He was telling her to go home, she said. “He kept repeating … threats over and over again,” she said.

He was toying with her by backing up like he was letting her leave but then pulled forward again, she said. He drove to another part of the parking lot, and she started to turn left to leave the plaza and saw Derr coming toward her again, she said.

So she changed course back toward the Walmart to remain in an area where other people were, she said. “He’s going at a high rate of speed to catch up to me,” she said. “As I was sitting there waiting to turn, he flew around the corner, and the next thing I knew, I was hit.”

The felonious assault charges related to Derr colliding with the rear end of the woman’s car. Derr maintained that the crash was an accident. The prosecution argued that it was intentional.

After he rear-ended her car, he got out and apologized, then drove off, she said.

DERR TESTIMONY

When Derr testified, he said he, the woman and the baby left home to get something to eat, but they argued about Derr drinking that morning, and she drove their car back home. Then she got in a separate car with their son and drove away.

“She gets in the car with my son and she’s acting really sporadic already. She peels off and just drives down the road a little crazy. I followed behind her out of concern. We go to Walmart. We pull over and stop.”

She asked “‘Why are you driving crazy behind her.’ I said because she pulled off with my son and acted crazy, and I was concerned. And then she says ‘Now it’s you acting crazy.'” He said they both drove away and the woman “brake checks me,” meaning hits the brakes in front of him.

He said he was “aggravated” and tried to get “past her to get ahead of her.” And that is “when the crash happened,” Derr said.

Under cross examination by Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Burnett, Derr said he was convicted years earlier of breaking into a house and was convicted of that offense and a gun specification.

Derr said he drank about a half a pint of hard liquor the morning of the incident knowing that he was supposed to work that afternoon.

He agreed that the woman advised him that drinking was a bad idea on a work day, but he was used to deflecting such comments. “I was upset, but I wasn’t physically responding,” Derr said.

He went to work, but called off at the factory and came back home. He said he had worked a lot of days in a row without a day off.

Derr admitted to Burnett that he was “inebriated” when police arrived at his house after the accident in the parking lot.

He said the woman drove when they tried to get dinner together a short time before the crash because he was intoxicated. He said the woman went on a “rant” about Derr having alcohol in the car with him when they tried to go to a restaurant.

Derr agreed that it was reasonable for her to be upset that he had an open container of alcohol in the car. “She just kept screaming in the car with my son,” Derr said.

The woman was not drinking that day, Derr said.