State v. Baird

• Citation: 2023 Ohio 303
• Decision Date: 02 February 2023
• Docket Number: 111428
• Parties: STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ANDERSON BAIRD, SR., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Court of Appeals (Ohio)

2023-Ohio-303

STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ANDERSON BAIRD, SR., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 111428

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga

February 2, 2023

Criminal Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Case No. CR-20-649656-A

Michael C. O'Malley, Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, and Fallon Kilbane McNally, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Flowers & Grube, Melissa A. Ghrist, and Louis E. Grube for appellant.

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

ANITA LASTER MAYS, J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant Anderson Baird, Sr. ("Baird") appeals his convictions and sentence and asks this court to reverse his convictions and remand to the trial court for further proceedings. We affirm Baird's convictions and sentence.

{¶ 2} Baird elected to bifurcate the trial. After trial, the trial court found Baird guilty of domestic violence, a third-degree felony in violation of R.C. 2919.25(A).^[1] A jury found Baird not guilty of endangering children, a first-degree misdemeanor in violation of R.C. 2919.22(A), but guilty of abduction, a third-degree felony in violation of R.C. 2905.02(A)(2); disrupting public services, a fourth-degree felony in violation of R.C. 2909.04(A)(1); and criminal damaging or endangering, a first-degree misdemeanor in violation of RC. 2909.06(A)(1). Baird was sentenced to a total of 30 months imprisonment.

I. Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 3} On March 17, 2020, at around 3:00 a.m., Baird awakened his girlfriend, Da'Jera Page ("Page"), and slapped her. Later that day, as a result of the slap, Page phoned a friend and asked the friend to come and pick up Page and her two-week old infant. Upon hearing this, Baird punched Page in the chest and spat on her, after pulling the infant from Page's arms. Page attempted to dial 911, and Baird took her phone and broke it. Page was able to flee the home with her baby, and the police arrived at the home to speak with Baird. Baird's five-year-old son, A.J., told police that Baird and Page were arguing and Baird hit Page in the chest. The police then arrested Baird.

{¶ 4} Baird was charged with five counts, including domestic violence, endangering children, abduction, disrupting public services, and criminal damaging or endangering. Baird elected to have a bench trial on the domestic violence count and a jury trial on the remaining four counts. Baird's trial counsel requested that the jury not hear any evidence pertaining to Baird's guilt of domestic violence or any facts relating to domestic violence.

{¶ 5} The state responded and stated:

I would also like to object to bifurcation. That's another trial strategy that the State did not have notice of prior. Also, all of these charges come from the same incident where allegedly the defendant assaulted the victim, destroyed her phone, and these are all coming from the same incident.

So to try to limit her testimony to only disrupting public services when the reason the defendant was disrupting public services was the victim was calling 911 to - attempting to call 911 to report domestic violence, if she's not allowed to speak about the domestic violence in the jury trial, that's unfairly and unnaturally restricting her testimony. I don't think that would be proper.

(Tr. 41-42.)

{¶ 6} The trial court responded, stating:

I didn't say that I was going to prevent her from giving context to her testimony. The fact that they're trying Count 1 to me, I'm making a decision as to whether the State has proved its case or not. But you do have to put the actions in context so I'm not - I'll wait and see how the evidence goes, but I'm not saying that the State can't mention anything that happened up to a certain point.

The decision on whether there was a crime committed as to domestic violence will be mine, but for information and questioning relating to how we ended up here on a five count indictment, at this point, I'm not preventing the State from presenting evidence. It's just you're not going to be arguing to the jury that the certain acts constitute domestic violence. You'd be arguing that to the Court if it survives Rule 29.

(Tr. 42-43.)

{¶ 7} At trial, during Page's testimony, she testified that she had trouble getting to court because her car had four flat tires and sugar was put in her gas tank. Baird's trial counsel objected, and the trial court overruled the objection. Page also testified that her car did not have flat tires the previous day. Next Page testified about an incident that happened earlier in the week at the courthouse. Page stated:

Monday morning when I arrived, I seen Anderson sitting outside and he was telling me, like, so you going to come to court? And I was saying yes and he was telling me that - he was just telling me like to leave and if I didn't leave that I was going to be f**ked and that he just wanted me to leave.

(Tr. 282-283.)

{¶ 8} Baird's trial counsel asked the trial court if he could approach, and the trial court stated that he could not but could make a record later. Page's testimony continued, and she testified as to the events on March 17, 2020. Page testified:

I was laying in the bed and Anderson had came in, he was drunk. I could smell the liquor on him. And he woke me up and he was like going off and I didn't understand for what. And then I just got slapped in my face three times. And he was just still yelling about the - I was half asleep so I really was, like, so confused. Then he walked out the door and he left.

(Tr. 287-288.)

{¶ 9} Baird's counsel objected, and the trial court overruled his objection. Page's testimony continued, with her stating:

March 17th when I woke up, I was really confused as to why he had slapped me prior to that night. So when I woke up, I had questioned -I had asked him like, what was your point of slapping me, like, what did I do? And he had claimed that he didn't remember anything. He didn't know -

* * *

He didn't know what - like he was trying to act like he didn't know what I was talking about. So we began to keep talking about the situation and we somehow got into an argument and I noticed that when we went get into an argument, I try to leave before it could get to that point where he puts his hands on me. So we was arguing, we was going at it, so I -

(Tr. 292.)

{¶ 10} The state interrupted Page's testimony to ask her where in the apartment did the altercation take place. Page responded that they started in the bedroom but migrated to the living room where A.J. was sitting on the couch. Page continued her testimony, stating:

In the midst of us arguing, I called my friend and I asked her to come pick me and my child up and take us to my mom's house. And when she got there to pick me up where you see that window, that's my parking - that's my driveway. So when she got here, I was right there by the window because she was blowing, so.

(Tr. 293.)

{¶ 11} After clarifying to the court that Page's friend was honking the horn so Page and her infant could leave the apartment, Page testified that

I was at that window, I was trying to tell her, here I come. Anderson was blocking me. He was grabbing me. He was tussling. He was trying to take the baby out my arms, out of my hand. I had her in a car seat. He was trying to take the baby. He began to tell me that I wasn't taking his child anywhere. We wasn't going nowhere. My friend was still out there honking. So I'm trying - I told him, like, at this point, I'm about the call the police.

* * *

I had my daughter in my right hand and she was in a car seat so I had her like this, he's tussling with me like this and he's pushing me (indicating). He's trying to grab the baby so we're tussling for her. So the process of us tussling for her, he's way bigger and stronger than me so he overpowered me and when he overpowered me, I fall to that window and he snatches the baby.

* * *

She was in the car seat and she was like - she was a newborn, so I did have her strapped in so she was fine. She was - my daughter was very little when she was born, so the car seat was kind of like too big for her. So she was, like, in the car seat, but she didn't fall out or anything. I guess you could say that she was being tossed around in the car seat.

* * *

I had tried to - I tried to call the police. He snatched my phone. He threw my phone to the ground and he begin to stomp the phone. And after that, I didn't hear no honking no more so at this point I'm crying. I'm in his face trying to get my daughter back. He then spit. He spit on me and then he punched me.

And then after that, I'm crying, I'm going - I'm still crying, I'm still trying to get my daughter because I'm not leaving without her and that's what I kept him, like, I'm not leaving without my child, dah, dah, dah. He's like, b**ch, just leave. Telling me like just leave. I'm like I'm not leaving without my child. Give me my baby and I'll leave.

He then gave me the baby and - he gave me the baby and that's when I left. (Tr. 294-297.)

{¶ 12} Page left the apartment and walked three blocks to her mother's house, where her mother called the police. Page left her mother's home and walked back to the apartment, where she met the police officers. When they arrived at the apartment, Baird let them in the apartment. (Tr. 314.) Page testified that she did not enter the apartment with the police and remained outside. Page stated that a short time later, the police escorted Baird out of the apartment in handcuffs and took him into custody.

{¶ 13} Baird's trial counsel objected to Page's testimony, stating:

I just would like to place, so I don't have to continually be objecting, I'd like to place an ongoing objection to the deluge of inappropriate 404(B) evidence that's been like an avalanche into the record thus far.

And we're

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