Jury fails to reach verdict in Route 66 shooting trial

4/30/2010

After about seven hours of deliberations, a Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury returned Friday as a hung jury in the case of a man charged with having a gun at the Route 66 Bar and Grill.

Lashon Sawyer, 38, of 2012 Balkan Place, is charged with illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor-permit premise. A jury of seven men and five women declared that they could not reach a decision after hearing three days of testimony about the shootout that occurred within the bar on Oct. 8.

The jury was split 7-5 with the majority voting to acquit.

Mr. Sawyer was a cook in the bar at the time. A video of the shoot-out was aired on national network news. The video shows him firing a gun after several men began shooting in the small bar at 406 Westwood Ave. No one was injured.

Defense attorneys claimed Mr. Sawyer's actions, including picking up the gun from where he said he found it, were in self-defense. The assistant prosecutor countered that he took the gun into the bar, violating the law, before the shooting began.

Judge Linda Jennings set a July 6 trial date to retry the case.