TOLEDO, Ohio — A Lucas County jury has found a man not guilty of three charges in the 2022 homicide of Mark Wysinger.
According to court documents, Vontae Garrett was found not guilty of murder, felonious assault and discharge of a firearm near prohibited premises Wednesday following a seven-day trial.
"Of course you get angry when you hear your name being slandered and things being said that aren't true about you, but honestly, you've got to trust the justice system and the jury of peers picked out," Garrett said at a news conference Thursday.
Garrett's lawyer, State Rep. Josh Williams (R, Sylvania), argued Garrett shot Wysinger in self-defense.
According to Garrett's testimony, a group of people led by Wysinger, 32, entered Crox's Bar & Grill, where Garrett and his family were, and started causing problems.
Wysinger's group entered the bar and "instantly were obnoxious, laying on the bar and throwing ice at one of the members of the party, leading to a confrontation," Williams said.
Wysinger threatened to shoot Garrett's group, so looking to avoid more trouble, Williams said Garrett and his party began to leave, only for Wysinger's group to follow them out.
This led to a moment in the parking lot when Garrett said he could see the two men begin to pull out guns and rush toward him.
Williams said Wysinger was "reaching for his waistband and running towards [Garrett], yelling 'shoot.' My client fires two shots center mass, one in the chest, one in the head, killing him. In the state of Ohio, that's self-defense."
According to police reports, Wysinger was shot in the head with a 9mm pistol after fighting with an individual in the street. Wysinger died on Nov. 5, 2022, of bronchopneumonia as a complication of a gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled a homicide by the Lucas County Coroner's Office.
Williams said he likely wouldn't have ended up behind bars if Toledo police had turned over a key piece of evidence: camera video from a home across the street showing the entire incident with audio.
Williams said a detective on the case watched the video "and the homeowner testified that he came over and watched the video and emailed it to his own personal police-assigned phone. The video disappears and they make no effort to find it."
"In trial, the detective testified we never knew there was a zoom-in feature, so when I started zooming on videos and you could see what was happening, you could see him reaching for a black item on his ankle when the detective testified his hand was open and empty," Williams said. "That was a game changer for the jury."
Toledo police issued a warrant for Garrett's arrest in November after he was accused of shooting Wysinger. Garrett was indicted and jailed.
"If I didn't have to do the nine months I probably would have been able to make payments, keep my house, keep my truck, but that's just material things and I'll have a chance to get it back and I'm grateful for that," Garrett said at Thursday's news conference. "I'm proud of what my legal team has done to maintain my innocence, and going forth and going to trial with me and having faith with me. I'm just trying to recoup now, return to regular life and put it behind me."
Williams said because of Garrett's trial, he proposed Ohio House Bill 233, which would change the law to allow people who use lethal force to be able to provide evidence before a trial that they were using self-defense.
As far as the lost video that ended up being a key factor in Garrett's defense, "that mistake might form the basis of a lawsuit against the Toledo Police Department for lost evidence. We are considering all of our options moving forward."
WTOL 11 reached out to the Toledo Police Department about the case and the potential litigation Williams mentioned. A Toledo Police Department representative declined to comment.
A second defendant in the case, Allison Sherrie, is charged with discharge of firearm near prohibited premises. Her trial is scheduled for Monday.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with information from a Thursday, Nov. 9, news conference.
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