Judge finds Dayton man guilty of shooting, sexually assaulting woman in June 2022

Montgomery County Common Pleas Courtroom. JIM NOELKER/STAFF FILE

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Montgomery County Common Pleas Courtroom. JIM NOELKER/STAFF FILE

A judge found a Dayton man guilty of nearly a dozen charges for shooting a woman in the leg in June 2022 while pistol-whipping her before forcing her into a vehicle and sexually assaulting her.

Melvin Anthony Brown, 40, was convicted Friday by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Richard Skelton of two counts of felonious assault, four counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of having weapons under disability and one count of tampering with evidence following a bench trial — trial by judge — that began Monday, according to court officials. All but the weapons and tampering charges carried three-year firearm and repeat violent offender specifications that will add time at sentencing, court records show.

Brown, who waived his right to a jury trial, is scheduled to be sentenced March 12.

Melvin Brown

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

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Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Dayton police were called June 11, 2022, to the 600 block of Neal Avenue, where they found a woman sitting on the front steps of a house with a gunshot wound to her leg.

The woman told officers she was walking home on South Smithville Road early that day when a man came up behind her.

“He made a vulgar statement and put a gun to her head,” according to an affidavit filed in Dayton Municipal Court. “He struck her several times with the gun and in doing so the firearm discharged striking (the woman) in the leg, breaking her femur.”

Brown reportedly forced the woman into a vehicle and then drove away. The woman attempted to pull at the steering wheel while the vehicle was moving, but Brown hit her multiple times and knocked her unconscious, according to the affidavit.

Brown remains held in the Montgomery County Jail awaiting sentencing.

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