Andrew Davison on trial for June 12 courtroom brawl with deputies, Elyria cop

ELYRIA — "'You're going to have to kill me. I'm not going to jail.'" Those were the words of Andrew Davison to two Lorain County sheriff's deputies before he started throwing punches at them following his attempted murder conviction and sentencing June 12 in Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery's courtroom. Caught on audio, Davison's statement was played for a jury Monday in Judge Giovanna Bremke's courtroom, as was video of the incident. The jurors will decide if Davison, 43, is guilty of three felony assault charges for allegedly attacking deputies Jeff Smith and Christopher Schmidt and Elyria Police Detective Sgt. Mike Walker with his fists. It is Davison's third felony trial in the last five months. He already is serving 18 years in prison for attempted murder and drug trafficking. Davison refused to enter a plea at his Oct. 24 arraignment so Bremke entered a "not guilty" plea for him. He also refused to waive his right to a speedy trial, with the case going to a jury only about a month after it was filed. Smith suffered four fractured ribs and a cracked sternum while Walker had eye, hand and shoulder injuries that are still healing more than five months later, Prosecutor Tony Cillo told jurors in his opening statement. He and Assistant Prosecutor Susan Oates are prosecuting Davison. Cillo told the jury Davison and Walker pummeled each other with fists before Davison tried to gouge Walker's eyes out. None of it would have happened had Davison followed Rothgery's orders, Cillo told the jury. Davison made a different choice. Instead of choosing to comply he chose to defy and the officers "fought back, as they have every right to do," Cillo said. Davison is representing himself in court. "I'm not a lawyer. I've got great common sense, though," he told the jury, while at times being argumentive and defiant with Cillo, witnesses and the judge. He alleged he is being forced to represent himself and that he is being "bullied" by a "corrupt" and "criminal" system that is "trying to play you (jurors) like you're dumb." Cillo objected, and Bremke instructed the jury to ignore Davison's allegations. Davison rejected Bremke's offer to have his court-appointed stand-by attorney, Matthew Bobrowski, take over his defense. "You made a comment I was forcing you to represent yourself," Bremke told Davison. "Would you like stand-by counsel to represent you?" "No," Davison said. The incident being tried happened following a June 12 sentencing hearing in Rothgery's court. A jury convicted Davison of attempted murder for slashing another man with a knife in 2024 in Elyria, and Rothgery sentenced Davison to 10 to 15 years in prison. Rothgery testified he proceeds directly to sentencing "90 to 95 percent of the time" following guilty verdicts in his courtroom, so he rejected Davison's two requests to report to jail at a later date and ordered him taken into custody. Davison, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, pulled away from deputies Schmidt and Smith as they moved to handcuff him. The deputies and Walker fought Davison, ending up in a pile on the floor as stunned onlookers watched and Dezort ran for help. The entire incident was caught on courtroom security video and on a Chronicle-Telegram reporter's cellphone video. Rothgery, his magistrate/staff attorney Laura Dezort and Smith all testified Monday that Davison started the fight. Davison "fought for a long time," Rothgery testified. A police officer for nearly 40 years, Smith testified in a cool and calm demeanor that the hope is always that defendants will "go peacefully" when sentenced. When Smith's judo training didn't work on the larger man, he testified he became afraid he was going to have to shoot Davison. He said he ended up putting Davison in a "lateral vascular neck restraint" hold to make him go unconscious or comply. Smith testified Davison was "pleasant" with him after the fighting was over. He said Walker's intervention probably saved him and Schmidt from more severe injuries. Davison used his cross examination time to accuse Rothgery of not knowing the law and Smith of lying about his injuries. Bremke ruled that many of Davison's legal questions to Rothgery were irrelevant. Smith calmly denied Davison's allegations. Schmidt, who shot Davison with a Taser during the brawl, and Walker are expected to take the stand today. Cillo's office dropped a felony attempted escape charge against Davison prior to trial. Bremke on Monday denied Davison's request to move the trial to another county because some potential jurors said they knew the families people who worked at the Lorain County Justice Center. She also rejected Davison's claim Black people were intentionally excluded from the jury. Davison is appealing his attempted murder conviction to the 9th District Court of Appeals. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.