Elyria man charged with online threats during Kerstetter 5K race enters insanity plea

An Elyria man charged with making threats online to Elyria police officers and Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker during the memorial Kerstetter 5K race in July has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Defense attorney Mark Marshall filed an electronic notice of the plea on behalf of Chad Smith, 38, of East Broad Street, on Sunday, according to Lorain County Common Pleas Court records. Smith "believes at the time of the acts which are the basis of this case that he suffered from a mental disease or defect that rendered him unable to understand the wrongfulness of his actions nor conform his conduct to the requirements of the law," Marshall wrote, asking Judge Melissa Kobasher to order a mental health assessment for his client. According to the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, that leaves it up to Smith to prove "by a preponderance of the evidence" that he did not know right from wrong at the time he allegedly committed the crimes because he was suffering from a severe mental disease or defect. Smith was being held in the Lorain County Jail on $800,000 bond. He is charged with making terroristic threats, a felony, and misdemeanor charges of inducing panic and aggravated menacing. Kobasher set a trial date in January. Smith allegedly made the threats on a Facebook post on July 11 during the Kerstetter 5K, the annual memorial run honoring James Kerstetter, an Elyria police officer killed in the line of duty in 2010. The posts allegedly included gun emojis along with the phrase "I have something for them," meaning for the police. Smith was convicted of making a false report or threat of a bomb or other harmful device, a felony, in Michigan in 2022 after he called a police dispatcher and said he had placed a bomb in a local business. He told police he made the threat to get out of going to work. Contact Dave O'Brien at 440-329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.