Inmate loses appeal in 2022 Liberty Township shooting

A 56-year-old inmate at Mansfield Correctional Institution, serving a 68-year to 73 ½-year prison sentence for a June 2022 shooting in Liberty Township, has lost his appeal in the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals.

11th District Judge Mary Jane Trapp, joined by Judges Eugene A. Lucci and Robert J. Patton, on Monday affirmed the judgement of the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas in the conviction and sentencing of Kevin Mallard, 56, who now is incarcerated in Mansfield Correctional Institution.

In April 2023, Mallard pleaded guilty and was convicted of four counts of attempted murder with firearm specifications, inducing panic with another firearm specification, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and carrying concealed weapons.

The appellate judge rejected two assignments of error Mallard’s attorney raised with the local court that the record does not support Judge Ronald Rice’s imposition of consecutive sentences and his guilty plea was not made knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily because the judge neglected to advise him of a right to a bench trial.

The three judges found the assignments of error to be without merit.

What led to the shooting?

Mallard was driving on Belmont Avenue with his wife about 3 p.m. on June 10, 2022, when he stopped at a traffic light at the busy East Liberty Street intersection, descended into a road rage, got out of his vehicle and shot another driver, identified as then 20-year-old Zach Woods, in the temple.

Mallard then engaged in a shootout with four officers from the Liberty Township Police Department until authorities were able to apprehend him.

Woods later died in June 2023.

Assistant Prosecutor Ryan J. Sanders argued on behalf of the state before the appeals court, while Mallard was represented in appeal by attorney Richard E. Hackert of Cleveland.