First, Jeffery Conrad swiped a wooden plunger from a broom closet at the Summit County Jail.
Then Conrad broke the wooden handle and sharpened half of it to a point.
Finally, he used the rubber part of the plunger to create a handle.
These are the steps Summit County prosecutors say Conrad took to make the “shank” or homemade weapon he used to attack Dennis McClelland, another jail inmate, in November 2014. McClelland suffered lacerations to his head, face and the base of the neck, including a few that required stitches and left permanent scars.
“His intent was to kill,” Assistant Summit Prosecutor Angela Walls-Alexander said Tuesday during her opening statement in Conrad’s attempted murder trial in Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Gallagher’s courtroom.
Conrad, 45, declined to be in court during his trial Tuesday, though his attorney, Job Perry, was present.
Conrad also chose to skip his trial for the August 2014 stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend, Amanda Russell, in the backyard of her Cuyahoga Falls home. He was convicted by a jury in October 2015 and will be sentenced for the stabbing death after his current trial that is expected to conclude Thursday, with a break on Wednesday.
Conrad is charged with attempted murder and felonious assault for the Nov. 11, 2014, assault of McClelland, 37, of Hudson, who is serving five years in prison for the illegal manufacturing of drugs.
Walls-Alexander told the jurors that Conrad and McClelland were housed with about 25 inmates in a pod that has a common area and individual cells for each inmate. She said the pod also has a broom closet with supplies that inmates use to clean their cells.
Walls-Alexander said there was tension between McClelland and Conrad leading up to the attack and McClelland tried to avoid him.
“No matter who you are, you have the right to be safe,” she said.
Walls-Alexander said jurors will hear from other inmates who heard or saw things before or after the attack. She acknowledged that no one saw what happened inside McClelland’s cell besides the two men who were there.
Perry focused on this in his opening statement, saying that no inmates saw Conrad enter or exit McClelland’s cell.
“If there was any contact, it was a mutual fight,” Perry said. “There was never any attempt by Conrad to end McClelland’s life.”
Perry said McClelland’s injuries were one-to three-centimeter lacerations, not deep puncture wounds. He also said McClelland has changed his account of what happened.
“You guys will judge his credibility,” he said to the jurors.
McClelland, dressed in an orange-and-gray jail jumpsuit, identified Conrad as his attacker from a mug shot.
McClelland said that on the day of the attack, he asked Conrad to quiet down so he could hear what another inmate was saying. Later that day, Conrad opened McClelland’s cell door and came in. McClelland said he jumped up and the two of them started to wrestle.
McClelland said he saw Conrad reach for something.
As they struggled, McClelland said, he smacked his head on the bed and wall.
“At this point, I’m fighting for my life, I feel,” he said.
McClelland said he saw Conrad holding something yellow, but never got a good look at it. In the confusion, he said he didn’t realize Conrad had used a weapon on him.
He said Conrad backed out of his cell and he followed, alerting deputies.
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Tom Kroll asked when McClelland realized he was seriously injured.
McClelland paused, fighting to control his emotions.
“I saw blood ... everywhere,” he said. “I couldn’t believe this happened.”
Perry asked McClelland if he remembered giving a different version of what happened to detectives shortly after the incident.
McClelland said he didn’t recall this.
Perry asked if he saw a shank. McClelland said he saw Conrad holding something. He said he wasn’t sure if the weapon caused his lacerations.
“I’m not certain,” he said.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .