MOUNT VERNON — The man charged with pointing a gun at a Fredericktown police officer during an attempted traffic stop last June has pleaded guilty to three felony charges related to the incident – as well as one felony charge from an unrelated incident three months prior.
He has been sentenced to 10-13 years in prison.
Darren Price, 39, of Howard, pleaded guilty April 1 to felonious assault with a firearm specification, failure to obey the order or signal of a police officer, and aggravated possession of drugs, according to court records.
The first three charges stem from an incident that occurred June 17, 2021.
Josh Jones, then a patrolman with the Fredericktown Police Department, had pulled Price over on Upper Fredericktown-Amity Road for an apparent registration violation.
As Jones approached Price’s vehicle, Price appeared to pull a gun on Jones, who immediately retreated and fired several shots. Price then sped off, and Jones followed. The pursuit reached 100 miles per hour at one point, as Jones followed Price through Knox County’s northern backroads.
The suspect eventually lost the officer near the Richland County line and the pursuit was terminated. Less than two hours later, Price’s vehicle was found abandoned in Richland County.
Price remained at-large for a week. Local and state authorities worked to locate and apprehend him in a North Liberty residence on June 24. He was transported to the Knox County Jail, where he was held until his plea date.
The incident marked Knox County’s first officer-involved shooting since 2014. A grand jury met in special session July 6 to consider evidence gathered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Fredericktown Police Department and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
The jury found Jones’ use of deadly force was justified as self-defense, which cleared him of any wrongdoing. Jones returned to work on July 9 following an internal investigation by the FPD’s use-of-force review board (he has since transitioned to a new role with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office).
Price, meanwhile, was indicted that month on six felony charges stemming from the incident.
He was indicted by a Knox County grand jury on four charges July 6: having weapons under disability (a third-degree felony), failure to obey the order or signal of a police officer (a third-degree felony), improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle (a fourth-degree felony), and tampering with evidence (a third-degree felony).
Then, on July 26, a second grand jury assembled to hear new evidence. It indicted Price on two more felony charges: felonious assault (a first-degree felony when involving a peace officer) and a firearm specification (an unclassified felony).
Price pleaded not guilty to all six charges. Over the next nine months, Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville worked with Price’s attorney, Newark-based Zachuary Meranda, to strike a plea deal. But according to McConville, Price wouldn’t budge.
Until the evening of Thursday, March 31.
“His attorney went out to see him at the jail (March 31),” McConville recalled. “He called me at home around dinnertime and said, ‘Price wants to plead.'”
Meranda also said Nicholas McDonald, a 44-year-old from Danville who had been charged with firing a shotgun at the occupants of a passing pickup truck in January 2021, would be willing to plead. He was eventually sentenced to eight-to-nine-and-a-half years in prison for felonious assault with a gun specification.
“I said, ‘You have just found two four-leaf clovers in a whole field. I’m gonna call the judges’ assistant at home and see if we can do this tomorrow,'” McConville recalled.
“Sometimes you have to just take the plea when they’ve expressed intent and not let it sit around, because then they’ll double back and say they don’t want to do it.”
The plea deal went like this: Price would plead guilty to the felonious assault charge (six-to-nine years), the firearm specification (three years) and the fleeing-and-eluding charge (one year).
He would also plead guilty to aggravated possession of drugs (two years), a third-degree felony. This charge stemmed from a traffic stop March 31, court records indicate, where Price was found with 10 grams of meth.
In return, McConville would drop three of the remaining charges on Price’s record, which were all related to the June 17 incident: having weapons under disability, improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle, and tampering with evidence.
These were lesser felonies, McConville explained (two were third-degree felonies and one was a fourth-degree felony), and the prosecutor felt comfortable dismissing them, as long as the heavier charges were still included.
McConville also said he discussed the resolution with Jones beforehand, and the officer “seemed to be comfortable with it.”
“We kind of allowed the gun specification to subsume all the other charges. We dismissed the other charges from the (first indictment) other than fleeing-and-eluding,” McConville said. “Frankly, he got more time out of the gun specification, and the gun specification is mandatory time.”
McConville described the investigation into the incident as “really thorough.” BCI handled the crime scene, while local law enforcement did the rest – including apprehending both Price and the passenger in his vehicle at the time, Susan Denuit.
Denuit, a 39-year-old from Mount Vernon, proved to be a key witness in the case, McConville said. She testified that Price pulled a .25 caliber pistol on Jones during the incident – confirming what body-camera footage appeared to show.
She also testified that Price tried to pull the trigger, but the gun jammed. Price ultimately pleaded guilty to this set of facts.
The state also had several other pieces of evidence that McConville believes led to the guilty plea. Jones’ body camera captured the entire encounter – including the chase – and the officer provided testimony during grand jury hearings.
When detectives located Price’s vehicle, they found a box of .25-caliber ammunition in the back seat, McConville said. And when they went back through old virtual visitation footage from the Knox County Jail, they found video of Price discussing the gun with an inmate.
“Price had had a jail video call with another inmate – Price was not an inmate at the time – going back and forth about a gun. …” said McConville, noting that all visitation video calls are recorded, and participants are warned of this fact. “He shows the gun briefly in this video and the other guy’s like, ‘I like that .25, man.’
“We have a lot of evidence that this was, in fact, a .25-caliber pistol that he had.”
McConville said Price apologized to Jones and took responsibility for his actions during the guilty plea hearing April 1.
Knox County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Wetzel sentenced Price to six-to-nine years on the felonious assault charge, three years on the gun specification, and one year on the fleeing-and-eluding charge – all run consecutively.
He sentenced Price to two years in prison on the drug charge, but ordered it to be run concurrently.
Denuit, meanwhile, is currently six-and-a-half months into a 30-month prison sentence for aggravated drug trafficking. She was not charged in the Fredericktown case, McConville said.
The owners of the North Liberty home that Price hid in prior to his arrest were not charged either.
“There were no charges for harboring a fugitive,” McConville said. “The folks in that house were cooperative in having him brought into custody.”
After nine months of investigating and working the case, McConville said he felt satisfied with the outcome.
“I think it’s a fair sentence that takes into consideration the seriousness of the conduct. If things had been a little different, this could’ve been a whole lot worse for everybody,” he said. “But it makes the statement that you can’t try to shoot at police officers.”
