Taylor Fortener will be sentenced May 15 after pleading guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence. In exchange for that plea prosecutors dismissed a charge of aggravated burglary.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima man who police say forced his way into the home of an ex-girlfriend and was in possession of a firearm, in violation of a disability imposed in an unrelated case, on Friday pleaded guilty to a single count of tampering with evidence.
Taylor Fortener, 26, faces a maximum prison term of 36 months when he is sentenced on March 15. He could face nearly two years of additional time behind bars if Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Terri Kohlrieser tacks on 767 days of Post Release Control (parole) time which Fortener has remaining on a charge out of Auglaize County.
Fortener was indicted by an Allen County grand jury in September on charges of aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence, felonies of the first- and second-degree, respectively. Through a deal with prosecutors the burglary charge was dismissed.
According to court records, on the afternoon of July 18, 2023, Fortener went to the residence of his ex-girlfriend on East Kibby Street in Lima to retrieve items he left there when he moved out. Fortener told police that he was attacked while gathering his belongings at the house when another male threw a gun at him. Residents of the home told police a different story, alleging Fortener forced entry into the home and brought the gun with him.
Fortener was later located in the 1100 block of Holmes Avenue and was taken to the Lima Police Department for questioning.
Police obtained consent to search the Holmes Avenue home and found pieces of a gun scattered in various locations; the barrel was hidden in a front bedroom while the frame of the gun was in a separate bedroom closet inside a plastic container, according to court documents.
Fortener told police he was under a disability that prohibited him from having a firearm so he dismantled the weapon — which proved to be a CO2 air gun — and hid the parts because it connected him to the Kibby Street incident.
Fortener was on parole on an unrelated charge out of Auglaize County when the incident in Lima took place. He was sentenced in September of 2016 on a third-degree felony count fleeing and eluding, and a fourth-degree felony charge of corrupting another with drugs. After initially receiving a sentence of five years of probation, Fortener repeatedly violated the terms of his release on several occasions. In July of 2018 he was sentenced to 54 months in prison.
