James Stewart guilty of murder in 2024 killing at Columbia Twp. bar

ELYRIA — James Stewart Jr. was convicted Wednesday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court in the fatal shooting of Jason Kleinman after a bar fight last year. Jurors found Stewart, 42, of Brunswick, guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and one count of illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor permit premises, all felonies, as well as firearms specifications in the 2024 shooting death of Kleinman, 49, of Olmsted Falls. The jury found Stewart not guilty of one count of purposeful murder, a felony, and one count of using weapons while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, for the shooting at Joker's Pub and Grub on Sprague Road in Columbia Township on May 10, 2024. The verdict followed a two-week trial in Judge Chris Cook's courtroom. Jurors spent more than two full days deliberating before reaching a verdict at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The case was an instance where multiple murder charges were filed even when there is only one victim, with each of the charges alleging a different pattern of facts or conduct. Jurors decided that Stewart didn't intentionally kill Kleinman, so they found him not guilty of a charge of "purposeful" murder. Instead, they found that Stewart killed Kleinman "as a proximate result of ... committing or attempting to commit" felonious assault and as a result of harming or attempting to harm him with a deadly weapon. Stewart, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of defense of others, was taken into custody. Cook set a sentencing hearing for Nov. 24. The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office asked Cook to sentence Stewart immediately in order to accommodate Kleinman's parents, who traveled from Florida to Ohio for the trial. Chief Assistant Prosecutor Chris Pierre said Jeff and Nancy Kleinman stayed in Ohio for three weeks, leaving their business behind, but were due to fly home today. Pierre said Ohio sentencing law is clear: Stewart should be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, plus six years for using a gun, for an aggregate sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 21 years. Cook declined to proceed immediately to sentencing, saying there were legal issues that needed to be figured out first. Defense attorney Michael Stepanik agreed, saying a presentence investigation by the county Adult Probation Department would benefit his client. Cook allowed the Kleinmans to give prepared victim impact statements so they did not have to return for in person for sentencing in 40 days. The Kleinmans said their Christian faith called them to forgive Stewart for shooting their son. "We choose not to live with bitterness and hatred," Jeff Kleinman said. "As Jesus extended grace, mercy and forgiveness to us, we extend forgiveness." Nancy Kleinman said she has cried every day for 17 months since her son was murdered. He missed one Christmas, two summer vacations, two of his sons' high school graduations, his father's 75th birthday and his mother's 70th birthday, Nancy Kleinman said. Good memories were how Jason Kleinman made Nancy Kleinman laugh "like no one else" and that he was the baker in the family, she said. She said Jason Kleinman's six children — Alec, a gemologist in New York; David; Skylar, a nurse in Florida; Jayden, currently in nursing school; Talan, a high school graduate; and Dante, now in college — are succeeding despite the death of a man who loved them and would do anything for them. James Stewart's criminal actions have caused "so many people so much heartache," Nancy Kleinman said, asking Cook to "act mercifully" for the sake of society and "render due justice" when he sentences James Stewart. Jeff Kleinman called his son's death "devastating," the result of a "sudden, violent, senseless act" that left the family with "questions and no answers" and no opportunity for final goodbyes or closure. James Stewart chose "violence over restraint," Jeff Kleinman said, and "those who choose deadly force have no regard for our laws, do not value human life and are a threat to the security and the harmony of our society." "Shooting someone unarmed in the back of the head is an execution, not an act of self-defense," he said. Jason Kleinman's life won't "be defined by the cowardly act of murder," his father said. "My son Jason's blood cries out for justice," Jeff Kleinman said, though "even justice will never return our murdered son to his loving family." The Kleinmans' words moved Cook to tears. "I normally would say some things, but we're not really at that point for me to say anything other than I'm moved by the parents, and there's nothing I can say other than I'm moved by them," the judge said. He then revoked James Stewart's bond and ordered him taken into custody pending sentencing. Cook ordered the murder weapon in the case, a Heckler & Koch VP9 9 mm handgun, forfeited to the Sheriff's Office. James Stewart's defense was that he fired three rounds to protect of his brother Mark. The Prosecutor's Office said the shooting happened after James and Mark Stewart, drunk and hostile after spending the previous seven-plus hours drinking alcohol at two bars with their uncle, got into an argument with Jason Kleinman and his friend Lewis Wade, who is Black, about the use of racial slurs. Wade testified that Jason Kleinman joked about Mark Stewart using the N-word to prove he was eavesdropping on Kleinman and Wade. Mark Stewart told his brother James Stewart about it, and James Stewart got his gun and confronted Wade. Wade and James Stewart had a brief scuffle but were separated by bystanders and told to take the fight outside. As James Stewart moved away from Wade toward the front door of the bar, Jason Kleinman hit Mark Stewart in the head multiple times before James Stewart shot him. James Stewart fled in his truck after the shooting, but later called 911 and surrendered to responding police. None of the men on either side of the fight knew their opponents before that night, according to testimony in court. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.