A July trial in Delaware County Common Pleas Court has been scheduled for a Columbus man who was recently indicted after he was stopped by state troopers in April and charged with his 11th OVI offense.
Robert Lee Ellis, 49, was indicted on May 6 and charged with two counts of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs, which are third-degree felonies, and one charge of driving under OVI suspension, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Ellis appeared before Delaware County Common Pleas Judge David Gormley on Thursday where Gormley set his bail at $10,000, a decrease from the $50,000 bail set by Delaware Municipal Judge Marianne Hemmeter on May 2. That’s when Ellis was arraigned in Delaware Municipal Court.
Gormley scheduled Ellis to stand trial on July 21. Prosecutors estimate the trial will last two days.
A pretrial hearing was set for June 27.
Troopers from the Delaware post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol report Ellis has 10 prior convictions in Ohio for driving under the influence. Troopers said Ellis was stopped April 30 on Polaris Parkway for a marked lanes violation.
Court documents indicate Ellis submitted to a breath-analysis test and his blood-alcohol level was .215 percent, more than twice Ohio’s legal limit of .08 percent.
Ellis was in the Delaware County Jail Friday.