Jury convicts man who ran over pedestrian with car

By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

March 19, 2008 10:50 pm

— JEFFERSON — A jury convicted a 24-year-old Ashtabula man of felonious assault Friday in Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court, officials said.
Arii Payne, 605 E. 30th St., was accused of causing physical harm by means of a deadly weapon to a pedestrian, prosecutors said.
Assistant county prosecutors Margaret Draper and Gene Barrett convinced the jury that Payne used his white Chevrolet Impala to run over the victim intentionally last August on Bridge Street in the Ashtabula Harbor District. The victim, Anthony Neubauer of Ashtabula, suffered a broken hip, pelvis and arm, as well as many contusions, Ashtabula Police Sgt. Joseph Cellitti said.
“He was all screwed up,” Cellitti said. “He was in a nursing home, for rehab, for a while.”
The jury deliberated for more than two hours before returning a guilty verdict.
Payne, who was represented by attorney David Per Due, now faces a prison term of two to eight years, once the presentencing investigation is completed. In the meantime, Payne is being held in Ashtabula County Jail.
This was not Payne’s first run-in with the law. In the past, he has been convicted of several drug-related charges, driving under suspension, contempt of court and menacing.
An Ashtabula County grand jury also decided recently there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward with the city of Ashtabula’s recent drug-trafficking charge against Payne, court records show.