Charlotte Caldwell
The Lima News, Ohio
LIMA — A man was sentenced to a minimum of six years in prison Thursday after trying to withdraw his guilty plea for assaulting a corrections officer.
Teir Pitts, 33, previously agreed to the six years when he pleaded guilty in Allen County Common Pleas Court to a second-degree felony charge of felonious assault last month on the day his trial was set to begin. The charge also carried a repeat violent offender specification, but the plea deal specified no additional prison time would be given because of it.
The sentence is not mandatory, so Pitts will eventually be eligible to apply for judicial release. Pitts will also have 605 days of post-release control time which he will serve in incarceration after his sentence because of previous post-release control violations.
If Judge Terri Kohlrieser had accepted the plea withdrawal, the case would have had a trial set again. Kohlrieser denied the request and mentioned if Pitts had gone to trial and been found guilty, he faced a potential 18 mandatory years in prison.
Pitts’ attorney, Assistant Public Defender Stephen Chamberlain, said Pitts wanted to withdraw his plea because he thought the public defenders lied to him because he didn’t know about the potential maximum of nine years in prison he could receive based on his behavior in prison. He also thought the public defenders manipulated him into accepting the plea, and they weren’t preparing anything for his trial.
Kohlrieser reviewed the transcript from when Pitts pleaded guilty, which included Kohlrieser asking Pitts if he was freely and voluntarily pleading guilty, to which he said yes. Kohlrieser also went in depth about the potential maximum sentence because Pitts had multiple questions.
Pitts also believed he was overcharged, and the charge should actually be a fifth-degree felony. He thought six years was too heavy of a sentence.
Assistant Prosecutor Colleen Limerick believed Pitts was “trifling” with the court by trying to withdraw his plea right before sentencing.
The court reviewed Pitts’ previous criminal history in Montgomery and Butler counties before sentencing, which included that he was previously diagnosed with ADHD and possibly schizophrenia after being found incompetent for trial but restorable in a case in 2018.
The incident occurred in the Allen County Jail on Nov. 8, 2023. Pitts previously argued self-defense in handwritten motions he sent to the court. He said a corrections officer told him to get in his cell, and he said, “Make me.”
Pitts said he went into his cell, and the officer followed. Pitts asked the officer if he wanted to fight, and Pitts said the officer said, “This ain’t what you want,” and the officer “came towards me in a menacing manner, and I struck him once out of fear,” Pitts wrote.
Pitts wrote he didn’t intend to harm the officer and has no history of assault in the nearly 10 years he’s been incarcerated. Limerick said Pitts has had four prior prison terms and has an 18-year criminal history.
“He was not to enter my cell but only secure the door,” Pitts wrote, as he said an officer entering cells violated jail policy.
Pitts punched the officer in the mouth and broke his tooth, causing him to need a crown. As of September, Limerick said the officer’s tooth is still sensitive, and he still gets headaches. Pitts also needed medical attention after the officer’s tooth cut his hand.
Limerick provided details of what occurred before the assault, saying Pitts was involved in making sexual comments to a female corrections officer, and the officers told him to go in his cell.
Pitts said he apologized to the assaulted corrections officer.
“It took me a lot to apologize to this man,” Pitts said.
“I can say sorry all I want, that doesn’t mean I’m sorry,” Kohlrieser said, ultimately finding Pitts showed no genuine remorse. “If he (corrections officer) was there to harm Mr. Pitts, he could have harmed Mr. Pitts .”
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