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Trial starts for man accused of gunning down stranger at gas station
DAYTON — Kyle L. McClendon and David Driscoll were two strangers who had words, then shook hands, then embraced each other.
Then McClendon shot Driscoll to death, according to Montgomery County prosecutors.
“I don’t really know why I shot him,” McClendon told investigators hours later, according to assistant Montgomery County prosecutor John Amos.
Amos and defense attorney Barbara J. Doseck gave opening statements Tuesday afternoon, June 9, in McClendon’s murder trial. Both cited video footage of the Feb. 8 shooting at the Marathon gas station, 4351 Riverside Drive, Harrison Twp. Amos said it was evidence of a cold-blooded execution, while Doseck said the footage would show Driscoll was the aggressor.
McClendon, 23, of Trotwood, is charged with murder, felonious assault and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle. All of the charges include gun specifications, which would automatically add three years to any possible sentence.
His trial before Common Pleas Judge Dennis J. Langer, which started Tuesday, is expected to last through the week, possibly into next week.
Amos said Driscoll, a Sinclair Community College student, had been at a party with other Sinclair students at an apartment off Riverside Drive. About 3:30 a.m., Driscoll and two friends walked to the gas station to get cigarettes. As they walked through the parking lot, McClendon pulled into the lot, revving the car’s engine and driving toward them, Amos said.
Driscoll and McClendon had a “brief verbal altercation” inside the store, then McClendon left and went back to his car, which was at a gas pump. Driscoll’s two friends went around behind the gas station to avoid trouble, but Driscoll walked out to the gas pump and exchanged words again with McClendon, Amos said.
That’s when the two shook hands and hugged. But as Driscoll was walking away, McClendon summoned him back, then shot him five times, once in the thigh, three times in the abdomen and once in the head. He then fled the scene in the car, Amos said.
Driscoll died at the scene.
“They were complete strangers,” Amos said, adding that Driscoll had done “absolutely nothing to provoke deadly force.”
Doseck told the jury that McClendon did shoot Driscoll, but “the question you’re goiing to have to answer is why. This tape is the best witness.”
Doseck cited the “domino theory,” and asked “Who pushed the first domino down in this incident?”
Had Driscoll not approached McClendon at the gas pump, “we would not be here,” Doseck said.
McClendon was arrested hours after the shooting, when a sheriff’s deputy passing a Riverside Drive apartment complex spotted a green Pontiac which matched the description of the car in the store’s video footage. The deputy touched the hood, and the car was still warm, Amos said.
The car was registered to a woman who lived in the apartment complex, but days before the shooting, a Dayton police officer filed a report after stopping McClendon in the same car, Amos said.
Deputies knocked on the car’s owner’s apartment door, and she let them in. Inside, they found McClendon sleeping with a handgun under his pillow, Amos said. The gun is a .22 caliber, as were the bullets removed from Driscoll’s body, Amos said.
About a month before Driscoll’s slaying, McClendon was given probation in lieu of conviction for carrying a loaded and concealed weapon, according to county court records. A background check found he also has numerous arrests, including for drug possession and assault.
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Comments
By Tom
June 10, 2009 2:12 AM | Link to this
Even the guilty deserve their day in court, and I’m sure you would rather have them mount a vigorous defense rather than having the case tossed for not having been well ddefended in the courts. and, talk about Driscoll being the aggressor in this incident is just that; a defense. It may not be a good one, but it make about as much sense as the defendant’s own reason for the shooting….Maybe, if Driscoll had given up smoking, he’d still be allive today, too.
By Kris
September 1, 2009 6:36 AM | Link to this
To say that David was at fault in anyway is an insult to everyone who knew him. A verbal altercation, no matter how nasty, should never end in gun violence. For instance, no matter how enraged I am at his needless death and the implication that he could at all be at fault it would be a great overreaction to say the least for me to shoot anyone that were to imply fault on David’s part. Murder is murder, the victim is the victim.