SCOTTSVILLE – Ben Wyatt had no right to open fire on the detective who attempted to serve him with an arrest warrant two years ago, the attorney prosecuting the case argued Friday.

An Allen County jury agreed with 49th Circuit Commonwealth’s Attorney Clint Willis, convicting Wyatt of first-degree assault.

Wyatt, 31, of Franklin, was charged in connection with the March 10, 2016, shooting of Detective Eddie Lawson, who had gone to a residence on Cherry Street that day to take Wyatt into custody on a warrant charging him with failing to appear for a court date in a misdemeanor case.

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for slightly more than an hour before returning the guilty verdict.

Jurors recommended a 20-year sentence for Wyatt, the maximum allowed by law.

Lawson testified during the three-day trial that Wyatt was highly agitated during the encounter, swore at him and declared he would not go to jail.

The detective attempted to use pepper spray on Wyatt, who pulled a .45-caliber handgun and shot Lawson multiple times.

Lawson returned fire, shooting Wyatt in the left bicep, and took cover behind a tree during the exchange of gunfire, he said.

Wyatt was arrested less than an hour after the incident after law enforcement found him in a wooded area within the same city block.

“I’m very pleased with the outcome,” Lawson said after the trial. “The system works.”

The shooting happened shortly after 3 p.m. near Frosty Freeze, a popular after-school hangout.

Lawson was shot in the hip, right leg and foot. A bullet shattered his right femur and he suffered significant blood loss and underwent multiple surgeries.

After spending several days at Nashville’s TriStar Skyline Medical Center, Lawson went home with a walker and a set of crutches. Last summer, doctors removed a portion of a bone from his pelvic area to use in a bone graft in his leg and inserted a metal plate in his upper right leg to replace another plate that had experienced screws loosening.

Willis declined to extend a plea offer to Wyatt due to the nature of the offense and at Lawson’s request.

The case was moved out of Simpson County to neighboring Allen County due to pretrial publicity.

Wyatt had also been charged with attempted murder, but that count was dismissed over the course of the trial because it covered the same conduct as the assault count.

Willis told jurors at the outset of the trial that this was a “pretty straightforward” case.

Jurors listened to recorded jailhouse phone conversations Wyatt had with a woman in which he likened the shooting to being in a video game and expressed regret that he did not shoot Lawson in the head.

“The defendant did exactly what he was charged with doing,” Willis said

Wyatt, who was represented by court-appointed public defender Pat Roemer, testified in his own defense and alluded to prior encounters between law enforcement and relatives, and other defense witnesses testified that Wyatt believed law enforcement was “out to get him.”

Willis discounted Wyatt’s testimony during his closing argument, calling it “self-serving.”

“Officers are not supposed to fight by Marquess of Queensberry rules with someone who’s resisting arrest, armed with a pistol, a knife and an extra magazine,” Willis said. “(Wyatt) did it, he just doesn’t want to take the consequences.”

Judge Janet Crocker of the 49th Judicial Circuit set a Sept. 12 sentencing date for Wyatt, who has pending criminal cases in Simpson County in which he is charged with two counts of convicted felon in possession of a firearm, convicted felon in possession of a handgun, first-degree criminal mischief, fourth-degree assault (domestic), terroristic threatening and menacing.