State v. Conner
| Decision Date | 20 February 2014 |
| Docket Number | No. 99557,99557 |
| Citation | 2014 Ohio 601 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE v. ANTHONY CONNER DEFENDANT-APPELLANT |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT
Joseph V. Pagano
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor
By: Jesse Canonico
Assistant County Prosecutor
{¶1} Defendant-appellant, Anthony T. Conner, appeals his conviction and sentence for aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, and having a weapon while under disability. After a thorough review of the record, we affirm Conner's convictions and sentence.
{¶2} On September 19, 2012, Conner was charged under a multi-count indictment as follows: (1) Count 1 — aggravated murder of Damon D. Woodard; (2) Count 2 — murder of Damon D. Woodard; (3) Count 3 — felonious assault of Damon D. Woodard; (4) Count 4 — felonious assault of Damon D. Woodard; (5) Count 5 — attempted murder of Marquis Hollowell; (6) Count 6 — felonious assault of Marquis Hollowell; (7) Count 7 — felonious assault of Officer Nikolai Przybylski; (8) Count 8 — discharge of firearm on or near prohibited premises; and (9) Count 9 — having weapons while under disability. Count 9 was bifurcated and the remaining charges proceeded to a jury trial. All counts, with the exception of Count 9, included one- and three-year firearm specifications.
{¶3} Over the defense's objections, the trial court found Marquis Hollowell competent to testify. During the course of the proceedings, Conner moved for mistrial four times, all of which the trial court denied. The trial court granted Conner's Crim.R. 29motion for acquittal on Counts 5 and 6 (attempted murder and felonious assault of Hollowell), and it denied his motion as to the remaining counts.
{¶4} The jury found Conner guilty of Counts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8, and not guilty of Count 7. The court found Conner guilty of bifurcated Count 9. For sentencing purposes, Counts 2, 3, and 4 were merged with Count 1. The court imposed the following sentence: life on Count 1 (with possible parole at 30 years); three years on the firearm specification; and six and one-half years on a probation violation on a different case. The court ordered this sentence to be served consecutively. The court sentenced Conner to eight years on Count 8 and three years on Count 9 and ordered that sentence to be served concurrently. Conner is eligible for parole after 39½ years.
{¶5} Conner's convictions arose out of events that occurred following altercations at the Sirrah House, a nightclub with a history of fights, shots being fired, and assaults. The Cleveland nightclub, located on Lee Road, between Judson Drive and Lotus Drive, is routinely patrolled by Cleveland police officers. The following is a summary of the pertinent evidence the state presented at trial.
{¶6} On the evening of August 20, 2012, during routine patrol, Officers Antonio Curtis and Mister Jackson observed a fight break out at the entrance of the club within minutes of their arrival on the scene. The officers testified that it appeared that the club's security was attempting to push a large, fighting crowd out of the bar and away from the entrance. The officers attempted to disperse those who were involved in the multiplefights that had pervaded the Sirrah House parking lot and nearby streets. Due to the number of fights and the size of the crowd, Officer Curtis radioed for assistance. Officer Nikolai Przybylski and his partner, Officer Katrina Ruma, responded to the call for back-up.
{¶7} Officer Przybylski, responding to the call with lights and sirens activated, parked his patrol car near the intersection of Judson Drive and Lee Road. Officer Przybylski testified that upon his arrival, he witnessed a large amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area. He observed "at least a hundred" people on the scene who were "all over the place." He further stated that there was a lot of arguing and "[e]verybody was yelling at each other." Once the crowd began to clear, he observed a young, black male in a white t-shirt lying on the ground holding his head and another black male standing next to him, on the "edge of the driveway apron," wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeved red plaid shirt. Officer Przybylski testified that the red shirt stood out in his mind because it "seemed very strange" that someone was wearing a long-sleeved shirt in the summer.
{¶8} Officer Przybylski further testified as follows: The male with the red plaid shirt pulled a gun out of the waistband of his pants. Officer Przybylski saw the muzzle of the gun as the male with the red shirt pointed the gun in the direction of his zone car. The male then shot two to three times in the direction of his car. At the time, Officer Przybylski was still seated in his car, with the window down. Officer Przybylski stated that despite approximately "a dozen people meandering" between his car and the shooter,he had "a clear, unobstructed view" of the shooter and "no one was in [his] line of vision." Officer Przybylski stated that the commercial area was well lit and he was able to see the shooter's face and identify the gun as a .45-caliber "two-tone[d] * * * black and chrome or black and silver" handgun. Officer Przybylski testified that it appeared that the shooter was looking at him and his partner and was shooting at them.
{¶9} When Officer Przybylski observed the shooter shooting in the direction of the patrol car, he removed his gun from his holster and exited his vehicle. While exiting the vehicle, Officer Przybylski, maintaining eye contact with the shooter, saw the shooter "pivot" and move from facing the officer to moving to the shooter's right. Officer Przybylski stated that he then saw the muzzle again come up and saw the shooter fire another three to four shots while facing north and west at an angle. He began to run towards the shooter. He stated that after the first round of shots, the crowd cleared considerably. He proceeded to chase the shooter. During the chase, he repeatedly yelled at the shooter to stop and drop the gun. He observed the shooter run in between cars, "dip[] down or crouch[] down" near a "dark-colored car" and "almost immediately pop[] back up" facing him. While continuing to chase the shooter, he saw the shooter's arms "coming up at the waist." Believing the shooter would shoot him, Officer Przybylski fired at him. Officer Przybylski testified that after he shot at the shooter, the shooter turned away from him and proceeded in a southeast direction toward Judson Drive, where the foot chase continued and Officer Przybylski fired a second shot at the shooter.
{¶10} Officer Curtis testified that he heard gunshots and proceeded toward the sound of the gunshots, where he observed Officer Przybylski chasing a male in the area of Judson Drive. He then joined Officer Przybylski in the pursuit. Officer Przybylski, seeing Officer Curtis approach, advised Officer Curtis that the male he was chasing was the shooter. Both officers observed the shooter run in between houses, and as they lost sight of him, they heard the rattling of a fence behind a house. They no longer heard the shooter's footsteps. The officers discovered the shooter lying between a fence and a garage, with his hands under his backside. Observing him rustle his hands under his backside, the officers yelled for the shooter to stop and to show his hands. Officer Przybylski picked up the suspect, and both officers handcuffed him. The officers found keys, a cell phone, and a driver's license on the ground where the shooter had been lying. They did not, however, find a gun. The officers later learned that a gun had been located.
{¶11} The officers placed the shooter under arrest. During that time, the shooter denied any involvement in the shooting. Rather, he stated that he had a twin wearing the exact same outfit — blue jeans and a red plaid long-sleeved shirt.
{¶12} Officer Przybylski positively identified Conner as the individual who fired shots at him shortly after he arrived on the scene and the same person who was carrying the handgun while running away from him. He also identified the state's exhibit Nos. 61 and 62, a red plaid shirt and a pair of blue jeans, with one hundred percent certainty, as the clothing the shooter was wearing that same evening. Officer Przybylski testified thathe did not observe any other individual that evening wearing anything similar to the red plaid shirt he identified as the shirt the shooter was wearing.
{¶13} Officers Daniel Dickens and Sarene Saffo, who also responded to the call for assistance at the Sirrah House, observed a parking lot full of cars and people on the sidewalk and crossing the street. They heard gunshots shortly after arriving on the scene. Both officers observed the shooter. Officer Dickens testified that he saw a black male with a short haircut, wearing a red, long-sleeved shirt, shooting northbound. Both officers identified state's exhibit No. 61 as the shirt the shooter was wearing on the evening in question. The officers also identified Conner as the shooter who was wearing that red, long-sleeved shirt. Officers Dickens and Saffo, who also joined in the chase with Officers Przybylski and Curtis, testified that they observed the shooter running in between the cars and then southbound to the sidewalk on Judson Drive. They stated that they only lost sight of the shooter for a brief moment when the shooter ducked down by a parked car, until he popped back up and continued to run out of the parking lot.
{¶14} Following the shooter's arrest, Officers Dickens and Saffo returned to the parking lot where they had last seen the shooter...
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