State v. Clinton, 2014–0273
| Citation | 2017 Ohio 9423,153 Ohio St.3d 422,108 N.E.3d 1 |
| Decision Date | 19 December 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 2014–0273,2014–0273 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. CLINTON, Appellant. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Ohio |
Kevin J. Baxter, Erie County Prosecuting Attorney, and Mary Ann Barylski, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney; and Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Thomas Madden, Stephen Maher, and Jocelyn K. Lowe, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee.
Timothy Young, Ohio Public Defender, and Kimberly Rigby, Elizabeth Arrick, and Jessica Carrico, Assistant Public Defenders, for appellant.
O'Connor, C.J.{¶ 1} This is an appeal of right from aggravated-murder convictions and death sentences. An Erie County Common Pleas Court jury found appellant, Curtis Clinton, guilty of the aggravated murders of 23–year-old Heather Jackson and her two children, three-year-old C.J. and one-year-old W.J., as well as other offenses, and unanimously recommended a sentence of death. The trial court accepted the recommendation and sentenced Clinton accordingly.
{¶ 2} We affirm Clinton's convictions and sentences.
I. Trial Evidence
{¶ 3} Evidence introduced at trial showed that Clinton raped 17–year-old E.S. on September 2, 2012, at his Sandusky apartment. Less than a week later, Clinton strangled Jackson, C.J., and W.J. in Jackson's Sandusky home. Forensic evidence also established that he raped C.J. at or about the time of her death.
A. Rape of E.S.
{¶ 4} Over the Labor Day weekend in 2012, E.S. visited her former neighbor, Mercedes Charlton. Clinton and Charlton were friends, but E.S. had never met Clinton. On Friday, August 31, Clinton picked up Charlton and E.S. and drove them to his apartment in Sandusky, where they spent the next few days.
{¶ 5} On the evening of September 2, Clinton and E.S. went to a local bar, while Charlton remained at the apartment. Clinton tried to put his arm around E.S. at the bar, and she moved away from him. E.S. told Clinton that he made her feel uncomfortable and that she wanted to go home.
{¶ 6} Around 3:00 a.m. on September 3, they returned to Clinton's apartment. E.S. tried to call her boyfriend to get a ride home, but he did not answer. She heard Clinton and Charlton arguing, and then Clinton and Charlton left the apartment. Clinton returned alone about 15 minutes later. E.S. was lying on the couch, and Clinton went over to her and started choking her. E.S. was able to twist away from him and stand up, but then he placed her in a headlock. E.S. said, "Please don't hurt me." He walked her to the bedroom and ordered her to remove her clothes and get on the bed. Clinton raped her vaginally and then choked her until she passed out. When E.S. woke up, Clinton raped her again. E.S. asked him to stop, but he refused.
{¶ 7} Later, Clinton allowed E.S. to dress, and he drove her home, where E.S. told her mother that she had been raped. E.S.'s parents took her to the hospital.
{¶ 8} Lisa Dettling, a nurse at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Toledo who is trained in examining sexual-assault victims, examined E.S. E.S. reported that Clinton had raped her and described what had happened. Dettling observed redness on E.S.'s neck that was consistent with her having been choked.
{¶ 9} The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation ("BCI") conducted DNA testing of vaginal and anal swabs taken during E.S.'s exam. That testing identified a DNA profile consistent with Clinton's. The BCI report concluded that "the expected frequency of occurrence of the DNA profile from the sperm fraction of the vaginal swabs * * * and the anal swabs * * * is 1 in 5,074,000,000,000,000,000 unrelated individuals."
B. Murder of Heather Jackson and Her Children
{¶ 10} In September 2012, Jackson was living in Sandusky with C.J. and W.J.
1. Events on the Night of the Murders
{¶ 11} Several of Jackson's friends visited her at her home on the night of Friday, September 7, and into the next morning. Between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., Justin Kromer and Jackson watched TV together, and then he went home. Joshua Case and Thomas Hanson arrived, separately, around 9:30 p.m. Hanson talked with Jackson and saw her two children on the couch and left around 10:00 p.m. Case spent much of the night at Jackson's. He had sexual intercourse with Jackson but left around 1:00 a.m., when a friend, Billy Crawford, picked him up at Jackson's home.
{¶ 12} Around 3:00 a.m., Kromer texted Jackson and asked whether she was home. She replied, He texted back that he "want[ed] to hang out with" her, but she did not reply. Kromer called her a few times after that, but those calls went directly to voicemail.
{¶ 13} Phone records showed that Jackson called Case at 3:05 a.m. However, Case later testified that he was "pretty intoxicated" at that time and did not remember that call.
2. Bodies Discovered
{¶ 14} At 2:30 p.m. on September 8, Danielle Sorrell, a close friend of Jackson, went to Jackson's residence but left after no one answered her knock at the door. After receiving a voicemail from Jackson's mother indicating that Jackson was missing, Sorrell returned around 5:00 p.m. She found the doors locked, and again, no one answered when she knocked. Sorrell opened a window and heard the TV but saw no one, and eventually she left.
{¶ 15} Around 7:30 p.m., Hanson and Dan Risner went to Jackson's house after hearing that she was missing. They knocked on the front door, and no one answered. Risner went to the back porch, forced open the door, and entered the home. The men found Jackson's body in her bedroom. They left, and Risner called 9–1–1.
{¶ 16} Sergeant Eric Graybill, a Sandusky police officer, responded to Jackson's residence and entered the home. He found Jackson's body wedged between the box spring and mattress in her bedroom with a ligature around her neck. Police found the bodies of Jackson's two children behind stacked boxes inside a utility closet. Each victim had a ligature around the neck.
3. Beginning of Murder Investigation
{¶ 17} Police found no signs of forced entry at Jackson's home. They interviewed Kromer, Case, Crawford, Hanson, and others who were with Jackson on September 7 and 8. The phone records of these individuals and surveillance tapes from Firelands Hospital, which is so close to Jackson's home that its cameras recorded the outside of Jackson's home and the approaching street, helped eliminate these individuals as suspects.
{¶ 18} Phone records showed that two of the last calls Jackson received on September 8 were from a phone number assigned to Clinton. One call was received at 3:00 a.m. and lasted 182 seconds. The second call, at 3:12 a.m., lasted 38 seconds. All of the calls to Jackson after that went to her voicemail or were unanswered.
{¶ 19} The officer who reviewed the videos from Firelands Hospital testified that it showed a white Cadillac arriving at Jackson's home at 3:10 a.m. and departing at 4:16 a.m. on September 8. The Cadillac returned to Jackson's home at 4:20 a.m. and left a minute and a half later. Detective Ken Nixon, who had investigated the rape of E.S., knew that Clinton drove a white Cadillac. Nixon notified the other investigators and suggested that they start looking for Clinton.
4. Clinton's Police Interview
{¶ 20} On September 10, Nixon learned that Clinton had been admitted to Bellevue Hospital as a suicidal person. Nixon and Sergeant Newell went that morning to see Clinton at the hospital. Clinton, who was being discharged, agreed to go with them to the Sandusky police department.
{¶ 21} At 11:06 a.m., Detective Gary Wichman conducted a videotaped interview of Clinton. Clinton acknowledged his Miranda rights and signed a waiver-of-rights form. See Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Clinton said that he had heard that Jackson had been shot.
{¶ 22} Clinton said that he had been seeing Jackson for five months and that they had had a sexual relationship. He said that Jackson had a lot of problems and sought his financial and emotional support but that he did not know Jackson's children well. He first said that he had last seen Jackson on Thursday, September 6, when they talked, he gave her $328, and they had sex. He stated that on the evening of September 7, he had gone to see Charlton, who was in Clyde.
{¶ 23} Wichman informed Clinton that phone records showed that he had talked to Jackson early Saturday morning, September 8. Clinton said he had had his days mixed up and that it had not been Thursday night but instead Friday night or early Saturday morning that he had last seen Jackson. He said he had not stayed long at her house; he had dropped the money off, and they had had sex. He said, "I did my thing and left." He was not sure what time he arrived home.
{¶ 24} Clinton said that someone else must have gone to Jackson's house after he left. He said that while he was with Jackson, she mentioned that somebody had texted or called her and she seemed irritated.
{¶ 25} Clinton said, "I didn't do nothing to her and no, I didn't do nothing to her kids so that's my statement." When informed that he was the last person to have had contact with Jackson, Clinton said, Clinton added, "If something happened, I don't remember it." He later repeated, "I ain't done nothing."
5. Clinton's Phone Call with his Mother from Jail
{¶ 26} Clinton was arrested and incarcerated in the county jail. On September 11, 2012, Clinton called his mother from the jail on a recorded phone line. Excerpts of that conversation were played during trial. Clinton told his mother that he was "confused" and wished that he had sought help. He also said, Clinton stated, His mother responded, She said, "[W]e should have really just forced you to go back to your medication." Clinton replied, "I thought I was...
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