HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury returned 12 acquittals and five guilty verdicts Thursday, capping off a four-day trial for the Tyrone man who held police at bay a year ago during a nearly 18-hour standoff.

John Albert Wineland, 55, who has been free on bail since Jan. 20, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 13 on one felony count of flight to avoid apprehension, two misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats, one misdemeanor count of simple assault and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.

Wineland was acquitted of one felony count of aggravated assault, two felony counts of terroristic threats, five misdemeanor counts of simple assault, two misdemeanor counts of terrorist threats, one misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person and one count of resisting arrest.

The charges developed after Wineland’s family members went to Tyrone police on July 21 and described leaving their 2054 Riddle Ave. residence, where Wineland was intoxicated, threatening and had access to guns.

In response, Tyrone police summoned help from other police units, including state police which dispatched a Special Emergency Response Team that bombarded Wineland’s house with tear-gas grenades, flash-bang devices and rubber bullets — while Wineland remained inside until shortly after noon on July 22, after a friend’s voice was broadcast, assuring Wineland that he would be surrendering to state police and not Tyrone police.

Wineland, who represented himself at trial and asked the jury to clear him of all charges, embraced friends outside the courthouse and thanked them for testifying. He declined to comment.

Assistant District Attorney Derek Elensky said he will review state sentencing guidelines for each of the convictions and prepare a sentencing memorandum for Judge Jackie Bernard to consider.

In court, Elensky told the judge that Wineland could “possibly” be facing a state sentence.

Wineland, who was arrested July 22, served about six months in the county prison before bail was posted in late January.

Assistant Public Defender Julia Burke said in court that she also will prepare a sentencing memorandum for Bernard’s consideration.

While Wineland represented himself at trial, Burke was appointed to serve as standby counsel. After the verdicts were announced, Burke told the judge that Wineland requested her office’s representation at sentencing.

The jury of nine men and three women who listened to three days of witness testimony and closing arguments on Thursday morning deliberated for about seven hours, concluding just after 6 p.m.

While deliberating, the jury contacted the judge six times — with questions or requests to again hear the legal definition of select criminal offenses filed by Tyrone police. For four of the six requests, the judge brought the jurors back into the courtroom.

Based on the jury’s convictions, it concluded that Wineland had threatened his wife, Jodi, and daughter Morgan, inside their residence on July 21, prompting them to go to the police station.

While both testified at the trial and told the jury they weren’t fearful of Wineland that night, Elensky asked the jurors to recall Officer Austin Miller’s body camera video of the women in the police station.

“They were emotional … you saw the video,” Elensky said in his closing argument.

Elensky also pointed to a written statement the daughter provided to police, where she described how the screaming Wineland threatened her and her mother with words and by throwing items inside the house.

Elensky also reminded the jury of a text message Wineland sent to his wife at the police station, telling her: “Come back to this house and I’ll blow your f***ing head off.”

“This wasn’t just an argument,” Elensky said.

On the aggravated assault felony that was filed based on the allegations offered to police, the jury acquitted Wineland. Both Wineland and his daughter, Madison, told the jury that she was the one with the knife that her father tried to take from her. She reported getting a small cut on her cheek as she pulled the knife away and Wineland reported injuring his hand.

When addressing the criminal charges in connection with the standoff, the jury concluded that Wineland was guilty of flight to avoid apprehension because he concealed himself at a time when he was facing punishment for the crime of simple assault.

It acquitted Wineland, also in connection with the standoff, of two felony charges of terroristic threats and a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment. Elensky asked for guilty verdicts on those charges, contending that Wineland threatened and endangered the responding police and SERT unit officer who surrounded his house and defied commands to exit.

Wineland, who testified in his own defense, took the position that he had done nothing wrong and had no obligation to exit.

Wineland also denied throwing a gas-filled hotbox device out of his window and challenged the testimony Miller gave, saying he saw the device come out the window and land about five or six feet from a SERT officer.

“Not one of those SERT guys — and there were 14 of them around my house — came here to testify and said they were in danger of being hit,” Wineland said.

Elensky reminded the jury that the SERT commander and lead negotiator described the efforts they made to get Wineland to exit.

After the verdicts were rendered, Elensky said he was thankful to the jury for the time and efforts made to examine the charges.

“The guilty verdicts rendered showed the terror that this individual put into his wife and daughter and that he presented to the police officers outside his house, when all he had to do was walk out,” Elensky said.

Wineland, who asked the jury to put themselves in his shoes, told them in his closing argument that he wasn’t going to do that.

“It sounds like a war zone outside my house … so there’s no way I’m just going to walk outside,” he said.

He told the jurors that Tyrone police, in response to his family’s reports, should have come to his residence, knocked on the door and asked him for his side of the story. Officers said in the trial that because his family reported him to have guns, that wasn’t considered a safe option.

Wineland and his wife also testified that the incident destroyed their residence and many belongings.

“I don’t feel they were justified in doing what they did to my house over a family argument,” Wineland said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.