Kevin Grasha

kgrasha@enquirer.com

Quran Hamm was at the Hamilton County Jail in July awaiting trial on charges of shooting at two police officers when prosecutors say he “sucker-punched” a deputy, knocking him into a railing and splitting his ear open.

Hamm’s motive for that attack, Assistant Prosecutor David McIlwain told jurors during opening statements in Hamm’s trial: “He hates white people – specifically white people in authority.”

A few months earlier at the jail, McIlwain said, Hamm tried to elbow another white deputy in the face. As he was being restrained by deputies, according to McIlwain, Hamm called them “white devils” and said "crackers crumble."

Hamm, 26, is standing trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on three counts of felonious assault. The charges surround the attack that injured the deputy as well as the shooting, which happened in Evanston.

In July 2014, after two Cincinnati police officers pulled over a car Hamm was riding in, McIlwain said, he ran from the car and fired a single gunshot at the officers. The bullet from a 9 mm Glock pistol did not strike anyone.

Inside the Ford Taurus with dark-tinted windows, according to testimony, police found more than $4,000 in cash, an ounce of heroin and Hamm’s Ohio identification card.

The driver of the car, 29-year-old Donnell Woods, who surrendered without incident, was convicted of a gun charge and is serving 2½ years in prison.

Hamm escaped that night, fleeing into a wooded area, McIlwain said. He hid at his mother’s house, which was nearby, McIlwain said.

One of Hamm’s attorneys, Norm Aubin, told jurors that no physical evidence – no DNA, no fingerprints – connects Hamm to the Glock pistol or the Ford Taurus.

Police dash-cam video of the traffic stop doesn’t clearly show the person who ran from the passenger side door.

There will be testimony, Aubin said, that Hamm “was not the person in the car that night who jumped out and fired at the officers.”

Hamm’s other attorney, Perry Ancona, addressed the allegations about the assault of Deputy David Smucker at the jail. He said Smucker, who also suffered a concussion, doesn’t remember what happened.

He said another deputy, who is expected to testify that he saw the punch on a video monitor, is unreliable.

“The only thing you’ll be able to surmise,” Ancona told jurors, “is that Mr. Smucker was injured – not that Quran Hamm had anything to do with it.”

The trial resumes Thursday before Judge Charles Kubicki and is expected to last about a week.