CLEARFIELD – The trial got under way Wednesday for a Woodland man charged with assault following a shooting incident last June in Lawrence Township.
Ralph C. Best, 60, is charged with felony aggravated assault as well as misdemeanor terroristic threats, reckless endangerment (two counts) and simple assault.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Warren B. Mikesell II. Best is being represented by defense attorney Ryan Dobo of the Public Defender’s office.
According to Mikesell, Best’s ex-girlfriend was at her 19th Street home the early-morning hours of June 9, 2021 and had just celebrated her friend’s birthday when Best showed up uninvited.
“After some persuasion,” he said the woman eventually let Best inside to talk, but instead an altercation broke out in a basement bedroom.
Mikesell said Best held the woman down on a bed, took her loaded .22-caliber five-shot revolver and put it to her head before threatening to turn it on himself.
He said Best – at some point – placed the weapon in the woman’s left hand and as they both struggled for control, one round discharged.
Dobo countered, arguing it was merely a “he said, she said” case. “Stories will change and won’t add up, and you won’t have any choice but to come back with a not guilty verdict.”
According to the woman, Best showed up at her home uninvited around 5 a.m. June 9, 2021. Initially she denied him entry but eventually gave in because he wanted to “talk.”
She said he made accusations of infidelity and also didn’t want her to take a trip with friends. “When I told him ‘No, you don’t get to control me,’ he didn’t like that.
“And it went from bad to worse – really quick.”
Best allegedly got on top of her, and as he held her down on the bed, he took her gun from its holster on her right hip and put it to her head.
After counting 1, 2, 3, she said Best cocked the gun. “I was deathly afraid … I really thought I was dead.” But she said Best stuck the gun under his chin, threatening to kill them both.
The woman said she pleaded with Best to give her gun back, and eventually he laid it in her left hand, but there wasn’t much she could do as he was still holding her down.
As they struggled for control of the weapon, she said it discharged and Best grabbed his leg, yelling: “… you [expletive] shot me.” She said he took off before she could find out if he was okay.
The woman said she immediately went to her friend’s home because she thought she shot Best. Her friend took possession of the gun and made a call to police at 6:11 a.m.
Later she said Best called and asked her not to report the incident, because he didn’t need medical attention and would be “just fine.”
During cross examination, Dobo pressed the woman over a letter she’d written to the judge in July of 2021, indicating she wasn’t at all threatened by Best and that the gun was fired on accident.
While she agreed that she’d written the letter and it in fact contained her signature, she said it was part of a “stipulation” to help Best get out of jail, so long as he would leave her alone.
Dobo also pressed the woman about the portion of her written statement to police that stated she didn’t want to press charges but would rather see Best get help.
Later, under questioning by Mikesell, she clarified her statement and elaborated that she wanted Best to receive treatment so he didn’t do this to another person.
Officers Ralph Nedza and Zachary Cowan arrived that morning to find the woman shaken and distraught. “Clearly, something traumatic had just happened,” Cowan testified.
While on-scene, Cowan said Best called and he asked Best if he was injured. He said Best indicated no, that the bullet actually missed his leg and he refused to speak with police at the station.
Cowan said Best claimed he was in State College for work but called him back later on and when his phone was pinged, it showed Best’s location as the Mount Joy area.
Best took the stand in his defense and when asked by Mikesell if he held the woman down with a loaded gun to her head, he swore: “absolutely not,” and that “nothing like that went on.”
Closing arguments will begin at 9 a.m. Thursday in Courtroom No. 1 at the Clearfield County Courthouse after which jurors will receive their instructions and enter into deliberations.