Gun-toting preacher guilty in road rage

CINCINNATI, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- An Ohio judge said he didn't buy a 71-year-old preacher's insistence that he never pulled a gun on a woman during a road-rage incident.

Hamilton County Municipal Judge Brad Greenberg said it was unlikely April Evans would have known Thomas Howell was packing unless she had seen it with her own eyes, the Cincinnati Enquirer said Wednesday.

"I think that the only reason Ms. Evans would know that (Howell) had a gun in the vehicle is that he pointed it at her," Greenberg said Monday as he declared Howell guilty.

The newspaper said the two drivers nearly collided in late June. Evans said Howell then pulled alongside of her and pointed a gun at her while verbally abusing her.

Howell, the founder of First Commandment Church of the Living God in East Walnut Hills, will be looking at 180 days in jail when sentenced next month.