WOOSTER — After three full days of testimony and four hours of deliberation, a Wayne County jury on Thursday convicted an Orrville woman of two counts of felonious assault and one count of domestic violence for stabbing her boyfriend as he slept last May.



Kelly Patton, 51, could now face up to eight years in prison. Judge Mark K. Wiest postponed Patton’s sentencing and ordered a pre-sentence investigation in the case. On Wednesday, Wiest dismissed the most serious charge against Patton, attempted murder, which is a first-degree felony. Wiest said prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence to support the charge and send it to the jury.



But the jury, comprised of eight women and four men, on Thursday found that the state did meet its burden of proof on the remaining charges of felonious assault and domestic violence, two second-degree felonies and a first-degree misdemeanor, respectively.



Before jurors began deliberating Thursday morning, attorneys presented closing arguments. First assistant prosecuting attorney Angela Poth-Wypasek argued that a financial motive led Patton to stab her boyfriend of eight years, James Troyer Jr., in the early hours of May 1, 2018.



"James Troyer had enough money to help Kelly Patton out with her needs, but definitely not enough for her greed," Wypasek said.



Earlier in the trial, prosecutors suggested Patton was in financial trouble leading up to the incident, and stood to gain from Troyer’s death because she was the beneficiary of his $100,000 life insurance policy, for which she paid.



Wypasek also argued that, during the Orrville Police Department’s investigation into the stabbing, Troyer gave consistent statements, while Patton could not give police a clear picture of what happened in the house the couple shared in the 500 block of McGill Street.



"How about Ms. Patton’s statement," Wypasek said. "I mean, it is just bad: inconsistent, no chronology and ever-changing, even in this courtroom, ever-changing, ... no semblance of the real human experience. Why? Well, maybe she’s just not that good at this. Or she didn’t think there’d be two sides to this story, just hers. And she didn’t anticipate that Mr. Troyer would be able to tell anybody anything."



When Troyer, 44, testified earlier in the trial, he said he awoke on May 1, 2018, to a pain in his neck. As he tried to get up and have Patton turn on the light, Troyer said he felt another pain, like a cut, in his arm. As Troyer made his way out the front door to try to get help, with Patton following him, he said he felt additional sharp, stabbing pains on the back of his left shoulder blade and near his waist on the left side of his body.



But Patton, who testified in her own defense on Wednesday, said she woke that morning to the feeling of a metal object, which she later learned was a knife, dragging across her chest and Troyer on top of her. She said Troyer wanted to have sex, and became angry when she refused, leading to a struggle over the knife. Patton said she got ahold of the knife and lunged at Troyer several times before he got it back and stabbed it through her left hand, causing it to stick to the mattress.



Ultimately, Wypasek told jurors to consider which of these two stories the evidence in the case supported.



"If you look at this entire situation and all the evidence, who acts like a perpetrator and who acts like a victim? Ms. Patton is the perpetrator, and all the evidence supports it," she said.



But Patton’s attorney, John Johnson Jr., argued that "everything Kelly Patton has told us is consistent with the forensic evidence."



Johnson said Patton was scared during the incident, and acted in self-defense.



"She was terrified, just like I think anybody in the courtroom would be under those circumstances," Johnson said in his closing argument. "... So she did what she had to do. She fought back, because she knew if she didn’t fight back, he was going to have his way with her, one way or the other. And she struggled and she fought."



And, Johnson said, the prosecution’s argument did not add up, specifically the notion that Patton stabbed herself through the hand, causing permanent damage that Patton testified about on Wednesday.



"That doesn’t make sense," Johnson said. "What does make sense is exactly what Kelly Patton told the police on May 1, and again and again and again. What does make sense is what she has told us in court. What makes sense is the truth."



Wiest continued Patton’s bond, meaning she will not be in jail until her sentencing. She has been free on bond since May 16, 2018, when she posted the necessary 10 percent of her $25,000 bond. As a condition of her bond, Patton must not contact Troyer.



— Reporter Jack Rooney can be reached at 330-287-1645 or jrooney@the-daily-record.com. He is on Twitter at twitter.com/RooneyReports.