By: Newspaper Staff
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
BRYAN — A Bryan man was sentenced Aug. 26 in Williams County Common Pleas Court and ordered to state prison after admitting he fired a handgun into an occupied mobile home and endangered a 10-year-old child in his care.
Nelson L. Lautermilch, 58, had his bond revoked Aug. 27 and was remanded into custody for transport to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, according to a journal entry signed by Judge Rhonda L. Fisher.
Lautermilch pleaded guilty July 29 to four of the six counts against him in case number 26CR000053. Fisher accepted the plea in an entry filed Aug. 13.
He was convicted of improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, a second-degree felony, along with a three-year firearm specification and forfeiture of the weapon; cruelty to companion animals, a fifth-degree felony; endangering children, a first-degree misdemeanor; and criminal damaging or endangering, a first-degree misdemeanor.
A Williams County grand jury indicted Lautermilch on June 24. All six counts stem from May 27.
According to the indictment, Lautermilch knowingly and without privilege discharged a firearm at or into two separate occupied mobile homes, identified in court records by lot number and by the women who lived in them. He pleaded guilty to the count involving the first home. The second was dismissed under the plea agreement.
Two counts alleged he knowingly caused serious physical harm to a companion animal. He pleaded guilty to one of those counts, and the second was dismissed.
The endangering children count alleged Lautermilch was a parent, guardian, custodian or person acting in that role for a child under 18, and that he created a substantial risk to the health or safety of a 10-year-old girl by violating a duty of care.
The criminal damaging count involved digital devices and other property belonging to another person, and alleged the act created a risk of physical harm.
Court records identify the weapon as a Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun, which Lautermilch agreed to forfeit.
The firearm specification carries a mandatory three-year prison term that must be served before and consecutive to the sentence on the underlying felony.
The second-degree felony itself carries an indefinite term under Ohio law, with a minimum set by the judge and a maximum set at half again as long.
Lautermilch was represented by Toledo attorney Clayton M. Gerbitz. Assistant Williams County Prosecutor Emil G. Gravelle III appeared for the state. The indictment was signed by Williams County Prosecutor Katherine Zartman.
Fisher ordered a pre-sentence investigation by the Williams County Adult Probation Office before sentencing.
