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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Tyrone man told a Blair County jury Wednesday that his actions on July 21 and 22 -- when he stayed inside his Riddle Avenue residence for almost 18 hours while police gathered outside and initiated non-lethal tactics that destroyed his house -- put no one at risk.
"I never threatened to harm anybody while I was in my house," John Albert Wineland, 55, testified in his own defense. "I never threatened to harm myself, and I never threatened harm to anyone else."
That testimony prompted Assistant District Derek Elensky to ask Wineland if it was his decision to stay inside -- despite repeated requests to come out -- and Wineland answered yes.
"I wasn't coming out for the Tyrone police, because I did nothing wrong," Wineland said.
Ken Lonsinger of Tyrone, a former Maryland state trooper, told the jury he watched Wineland, his co-worker and friend, emerge from the residence about noon on July 22 -- after state police discharged multiple rounds of flash-bang grenades and tear gas into the residence.
Lonsinger said he told an on-scene officer that he could get Wineland to come out -- and stressed in court on Wednesday that he would have been willing to knock on Wineland's door and carry him out of the residence.
But Lonsinger said the on-scene state police troopers restricted him to making a recorded message -- where he assured Wineland that only state police -- and not borough police -- were outside to take him into custody.
"When I heard my voice (being played) for the third time, (Wineland) walked out with his hands up," Lonsinger said.
Wineland, whose jury trial is expected to wrap up today, is charged with attempted aggravated assault, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, simple assault, flight to avoid apprehension, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Some of the charges have multiple counts, based on allegations that Wineland's wife and two daughters made to Tyrone Borough police officer Austin Miller on the evening of July 21. They described Wineland as intoxicated and threatening and presented a video of Wineland with three guns including two hanging from shoulder straps. The video also shows the family members saying they were fearful, a description they have since recanted.
Wineland, while testifying Wednesday, said he was using the BB gun, pellet gun and a cork gun to shoot at targets in his backyard range and not to threaten anyone.
At the police station, the family offered no specific description of the guns to Tyrone officer Austin Miller, as recorded by his body camera video.
After Miller relayed the family's concerns to fellow officers, Police Chief Jessica Walk summoned assistance from state police that sent its Special Emergency Response Team to 2054 Riddle Ave. and went through a series of progressive tactics to get Wineland to come out his residence.
State Police Trooper Rusty Hays said he was "given hours" to talk Wineland into coming out of the house. In an audio recording that Elensky played in court, the jury heard Hays tell Wineland: "I told you we have an arrest warrant, and if you don't talk to us, your house is going to get damaged."
Wineland, on that same recording, responded: "I ain't worried about your f***ing warrant."
Hays also testified that the officers believed Wineland had guns that he would use to harm himself or the responding officers.
"There's no way to know whether it's an air gun, a pellet gun or a real gun," Hays testified.
Wineland, who is representing himself in trial, also denied being a threat to himself.
"Your wife and one of your daughters were concerned that you might be suicidal," Hays said in court, prompting Wineland to reply: "My wife was pretty blunt about me not being suicidal."
Wineland also called his wife, Jodi, to the witness stand and she affirmed her husband's statement.
"I probably told the officers 100 times that you were not suicidal," Jodi Wineland said.
The wife also said she thought that police, in response to the concerns she and her daughters reported, would go to their residence, knock on the door and temporarily remove her husband.
"Did I think my house was going to get blown up and that I'd have nothing left? No," Jodi Wineland testified.
John Wineland offered photographs of the foundation damage to the house. Jodi Wineland told the jury that photos of her children and family Bibles were destroyed.
"Everything was tear-gassed or soaked in this pink stuff that comes from flash-bangs, I guess," she said.
Judge Jackie Bernard is presiding over the trial, with closing arguments scheduled for this morning.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456