DaytonDailyNews.com

HAMILTON — Terrence Candidate was not permitted to stand when the jury entered the courtroom to read its guilty verdicts. That sometimes happens to defendants considered flight risks.

And that's just what Butler County sheriff's deputies considered Candidate on Tuesday, June 24, only minutes after they said the 24-year-old West Chester Twp. man on trial for kidnapping was subdued by a Taser in a stairwell as he tried to escape.

Officials said Candidate attempted to flee while being escorted off an elevator en route back to Butler County Common Pleas Judge Craig Hedric's courtroom.

At around 2:45 p.m., witnesses said two sheriff's deputies were escorting Candidate off the elevator when he slipped from their grasp and fled down the stairs at the Government Services Center. Deputies and two plain-clothes West Chester Twp. detectives ran out of the courtroom in pursuit, shouting orders for Candidate to stop, officials said.

Witnesses said sheriff's deputies Tased Candidate in the stairwell between the building's third and second floors. Officials said this was the second time Candidate tried to escape.

Earlier this month — along with three other suspects — Candidate was in court accused of planning an escape from the Butler County Jail. Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper said then that his office was not filing charges against the prisoners.

Following the incident Tuesday, when Candidate reappeared in court he was shackled at wrists and ankles. The collar of his shirt was torn and two sheriff's deputies held his arms as he walked with resistance into the courtroom.

When Bailiff Greg Blankenship called "all rise" and Hedric took his seat, Candidate remained seated, following orders from one of the four deputies who stood guard over him.

Candidate was found guilty on all eight counts stemming from a March 27 incident in which he was charged with holding his former girlfriend's family hostage, slashing her father with a carving knife and stealing her car.

Candidate said nothing and stared straight ahead with a blank expression as Hedric read the verdicts. After the jury left, Candidate was escorted out of the room and back into the elevator. With guards on both sides and shackles binding his limbs, he quietly complied with their commands as they took him back to the county jail.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5127 or mcunningham@coxohio.com.