Jury trial averted by 11th-hour plea in Marko's shooting

Jan. 24—LIMA — With prospective jurors lined up in the hall outside an Allen County courtroom on Monday, a Lima man made their attendance moot when he averted his trial by entering an 11th-hour plea to charges related to a shooting outside Marko's bar in Lima last year.

Sheldon Williams, 32, will be sentenced March 4 after pleading to the indictment returned against him by an grand jury last June. That indictment included charges of felonious assault, a second-degree felony; having weapons under disability, a felony of the fifth degree, and carrying a concealed weapon, a fourth-degree felony. The felonious assault charge included a three-year specification for the use of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Prosecutors alleged that on April 2, 2021, Williams did knowingly cause or attempt to cause physical harm to 24-year-old Rico Stafford and was in possession of a handgun while doing so.

Stafford was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Several shell casings were located in the 100 block of East Kibby Street, according to a statement issued by the Lima Police Department following the incident.

According to court documents, members of the Lima Police Department were dispatched around 1 a.m. on April 2 to Marko's Sports and Spirits on South Main Street in Lima in reference to shots fired. Upon arrival, officers located Stafford outside the bar suffering from gunshots to his right ankle, right side and right forearm.

Police spoke with an employee at the bar who said there was "some type of altercation" between the two men inside the bar and that Williams had left, only to return later. Williams was denied entry into the bar because of the earlier confrontation.

The shooting took place shortly thereafter.