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Jury finds defendant Joshua Beall guilty of murder, other charges

UPDATE @ 7:15 p.m.: The jury has found Joshua Beall guilty on all counts, including murder.

He is to be sentenced March 20, according to Common Pleas Judge Barbara P. Gorman.

In February, Beall waived his right to a jury trial on some of the charges filed against him and was tried before a judge (called a bench trial).

We’re working to learn the outcome of that case.

UPDATE @ 6:20 p.m. (March 12): 

The jury in the case against Joshua Beall has reached a verdict.

We are working to learn his fate and we’ll update it here when the verdict is read in court.

The Montgomery County Common Pleas jury was given the case Tuesday afternoon, after summations by prosecutors and defense counsel.

Beall and his lawyer claimed Donald Armstrong III pointed a gun at Beall while they and a woman were at an apartment on Maryland Avenue last summer. Beall told the jury he killed Armstrong in self-defense.

“Things changed,” defense attorney Lucas Wilder told the jury in his closing statement. “You have to put yourself in Mr. Beall’s shoes. Did he act reasonably, even if he’s mistaken?”

Prosecutors claim Beall admitted his crimes to police, then came up with new stories before trial.

“You shot him over and over and over again. Yes, that’s what happened,” county Assistant Prosecutor Ward Barrentine told the jury in response to Beall’s claim of self-defense.

The charges against Beall include aggravated robbery stemming from a series of bank robberies and a carjacking involving a female pizza delivery driver in Huber Heights.

He was arrested after a chase and crash in Sharonville, near Cincinnati.

UPDATE @ 3:32 p.m. (March 12)

Closing arguments have begun in the murder case of Joshua Beall.

Beall, 30, is accused of killing Donald Armstrong III in an apartment on Maryland Avenue last year.

EARLIER REPORT

A man accused of a week-long crime spree, including a carjacking and murder, testified Monday afternoon.

Beall never really denied any involvement in any of the crimes he’s accused of, but insisted he never intended to hurt anyone and claimed the killing he’s accused of is a case of self-defense.

Beall said he was in a bedroom with a friend and a woman, dividing up money from an earlier bank robbery.  He told the jury their was tension in the air and a weird atmosphere.

Beall claims Donald Armstrong, who he refereed to as "Trey,” started pulling a gun out of his waistband.

This is the second week for the trial.

Beall is charged with murder in Armstrong’s death and also faces charges for a series of bank robberies and a carjacking of a female pizza delivery driver in Huber Heights.

He was arrested for a chase and crash in Sharonville, near Cincinnati.

Prosecutors said Beall changed his story from the police interviews initially conducted during the investigation

Prosecutors showed a letter they said he wrote to another woman, where he claimed he would blame the killing on the woman he was eventually arrested with, or claim self-defense.

Now that prosecutors and Beall’s defense lawyer have finished presenting their cases, it's expected that closing arguments will happen Tuesday morning and jury deliberations will begin.

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