Jurors found Kehoe guilty of felonious assault on both Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper J. Harold Harker and Clinton County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Gates and carrying a concealed weapon.
The jury of nine women and three men had begun deliberating around 6 p.m. Several of the jurors appeared shaken as they entered the courtroom just before midnight to read their verdict.
The foreman of the jury, who declined to give his name, said the jury felt that the state didn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kehoe intended to murder Harker.
"I'd like to say thanks to all of the law enforcement people out there. They put their lives on the line daily," he said.
Judge William McCracken will set a sentencing date today. Kehoe's defense attorney Jeffrey Hoskins requested time to prepare a sentencing recommendation to the court. Kehoe faces up to 27 1/2 years in prison.
Clinton County Prosecutor William Peelle called the verdict "very, very fair and very, very proper.
"I think the jury obviously looked at the evidence rather closely and returned verdicts that were obviously supported by the evidence," Peelle said.
Gates who had been characterized by the defense as an inexperienced deputy, also was satisfied with the verdict.
"I feel justice has been served," Gates said. "Attorney Hoskins had a difficult case with a videotaped crime. He did the best he could. I couldn't go up there and perjure myself. The case meant too much to me."
Earlier, Kehoe's attorney Jeffrey Hoskins had argued that an inexperienced sheriff's deputy, fueled by a rush of adrenaline, touched off last year's videotaped shootout with the Kehoe brothers, Cheyne Kehoe's attorney told the jury Monday.
Hoskins made his comments during closing arguments in Cheyne Kehoe's trial on charges of attempted murder, felonious assault and carrying a concealed weapon in connection with the Feb. 15, 1997, shootout on Ohio 73.
Hoskins contended Clinton County Gates, 26, involved himself in a state trooper's routine traffic stop of the Kehoes because he was "eager, aggressive and looking for action." At the time, Gates had been a deputy about two years.
"Nobody is above the law and anybody can make a mistake, especially a rookie cop caught up in the moment," Hoskins said.
He said Gates fired into the Kehoes' stopped Chevrolet Suburban after he misinterpreted a "simple, innocent movement" as a move by Kehoe to aim a gun. Gates andHarker testified last week that they saw Kehoe draw a .45-caliber pistol and take aim.
Prosecutors told the jury that Cheyne tried to ambush the officers as they wrestled outside the Suburban with his brother, Chevie. They said the Kehoes had good reason to want to elude capture: Chevie had told Cheyne that he was involved in the January 1996 homicides of an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and her 8-year-old daughter.
Hoskins said Cheyne had nothing to do with the homicides. Cheyne testified before a federal grand jury in Arkansas and, in December, Chevie was federally indicted on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and murder.
Prosecutor Peelle told the jury that Cheyne's claim that he fired in self-defense doesn't apply because his action gave rise to the shootout. "People with common sense know if he hadn't had that concealed weapon there, none of this would have happened," Peelle said.
The traffic stop was captured by a video camera in Harker's cruiser, and the videotape has been played repeatedly in court. Each side says the tape supports its case, and each side accused the other of tailoring testimony to fit the videotape.
"This is not television, this is not the movie of the week," said Assistant Clinton County Prosecutor Richard Moyer. "This is reality, life and death."
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