August 12, 2015- Commonwealth v. David Dones:  A Dauphin County jury on Tuesday convicted David Dones, 31 of Harrisburg, on one count of resisting arrest and one count of disorderly conduct.  Dauphin County President Judge Richard A. Lewis additionally found Dones guilty of a summary charge of public drunkenness.  After the verdict, as the jury was walking out of the courtroom, Dones yelled profanities at the jury, screamed at President Judge Lewis, and directed expletive terms towards the prosecutor.  

The charges stemmed from an incident that occurred in the City of Harrisburg on October 11, 2014 around 7:23 p.m.  Harrisburg City Police Officer Jeremy Crist was on patrol in the 1200 Block of Kittanny Street when he came in contact with Dones.  Dones was standing at the corner of Hummel and Kittanny St (Allison Hill neighborhood) with what looked like a black handgun in his right hand and a metal pipe into his left hand. Officer Crist exited his patrol car and took cover behind the engine block. When he did this, Dones began to yell at Officer Crist in an aggressive manner. Dones eventually threw the metal pipe and kept a hold of what looked like a firearm in his right hand. Officer Crist commanded several times for Dones to put the weapon down but Dones refused. Dones eventually threw the weapon into the front yard of a residence in the 300 block of Hummel Street.  Dones' aggressive behavior however did not end there. Dones then took off a fanny pack and shook it aggressively at Officer Crist. Officer Crist testified that he did not know what could have been in that fanny pack but the fanny pack was big enough to fit another firearm. Dones eventually dropped the fanny pack, but then stuck both hands in his pockets and shook his jeans in an aggressive manner. At trial, Officer Crist got up in front of the jury and demonstrated Dones aggressive behavior.  During this entire incident, Dones was completely belligerent and continuously screamed at Officer Crist. Eventually, Dones removed both of his hands from his pocket, which gave Officer Crist a window of opportunity to take the Dones to the ground and safely handcuff him. Once the weapon was taken into evidence, Officer Crist realized it was just a BB gun. However, it was not your typical BB gun because it looked and felt like a firearm.  After Dones was taken into custody, Officer Crist realized that Dones was intoxicated.

At the trial, Dones testified that he was holding the weapon and a metal rod in his hand because there was an intruder in his house prior to Officer Crist arriving at the scene. On cross examination, Dones was extremely agitated and wouldn’t give Deputy District Attorney April Schantz chance to ask any questions. During his testimony, Dones contradicted himself several times but did eventually admit that he never reported the alleged intruder to the police.  Deputy District Attorney Schantz praised Officer's Crist's "exemplary patience and restraint" when dealing with Dones. "This situation could have easily escalated and spun out of control with deadly results."    

 Judge Lewis deferred sentencing until November 18, 2015 at 11 AM.