State v. Cook
| Decision Date | 02 May 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 2015CA00090.,2015CA00090. |
| Citation | 64 N.E.3d 350 |
| Parties | STATE of Ohio, Plaintiff–Appellee v. Anthony Marcelle COOK, Defendant–Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
John D. Ferrero, Jr., Stark Co. Prosecutor, Kathleen O. Tatarsky, Canton, OH, for plaintiff-appellee.
Derek Lowry, Crawford Lowry LLC, Canton, OH, for defendant-appellant.
SHEILA G. FARMER, P.J., W. SCOTT GWIN, J., and PATRICIA A. DELANEY, J.
{¶ 1} Appellant Anthony Marcelle Cook appeals from the May 7, 2015 Judgment Entry of the Stark County Court of Common Pleas. Appellee is the state of Ohio.
Dawn Remley goes on a Date with Ernest Morris
{¶ 2} Dawn Remley is an admitted crack cocaine addict, alcoholic, and prostitute. She has known Ernest Morris for approximately three years. On August 20, 2014, around 5:00 p.m., she arranged to meet Morris near the Huntington Bank on West Tuscarawas Street in Canton, Ohio. She and Morris shopped at a number of stores afterward, buying school supplies for Remley's children. The two briefly returned to Morris' residence in Perry Township and Remley smoked crack cocaine. Remley testified Morris was aware of her drug use but did not use drugs himself.
{¶ 3} Next they delivered the school supplies to Remley's children at her mother's house. They returned to Morris' house around 7:30 p.m.
{¶ 4} Morris asked Remley whether she would go camping with him the next day. She agreed but said she needed to return to her apartment to pack clothing for the trip. Morris drove Remley to her Canton apartment in his red Ford Ranger pickup truck. They arrived at the apartment around 10:30 p.m.
{¶ 5} Earlier that day, before his date with Remley, Morris had picked up his truck from an auto body shop where it had been repaired. Before the truck was returned to Morris, it was thoroughly detailed.
{¶ 6} Remley lived in a brick apartment building near the intersection of Second Street and Fulton Road Northwest with her boyfriend, Richard Lowe. Morris dropped Remley off outside the apartment building and she went inside to get her things. In the meantime, she asked Morris to go to a drive-through carry-out to pick up alcohol and cigarettes. Morris was supposed to call her when he returned to the area.
{¶ 7} Morris owned a distinctive flip-style phone described as "chunky" with an orange battery pack attached to it. Remley testified she had used the phone to make several calls while they were together that day. She last saw the phone in the cup holder in the console of Morris' truck.
{¶ 8} Inside her apartment, Remley argued with Lowe because she had been gone longer than she expected. About thirty minutes later, Remley realized she had not heard from Morris. She decided to walk to the "Towne Manor" nearby to buy her own cigarettes from a vending machine. On her way back, she saw an ambulance and the lights of police cars in the parking lot behind her apartment building.
{¶ 9} Remley testified she did not know this police activity related to Morris until the next day when detectives knocked on her door.
{¶ 10} Ptl. Craig Riley is a Canton police officer familiar with the neighborhood surrounding the 900 block of West Tuscarawas Street. He described it as a low-income area known for prostitution and drug sales, a "hotbed for criminal activity." On August 14, he was dispatched to the area of Second and Moon Court N.W. for a report of a "man down" in a parking lot.
{¶ 11} Upon Riley's arrival on the scene, the 911 caller, a woman awaiting a bus, waved him down and pointed out the body of a man lying face-down next to a red truck in the parking lot. Riley observed people "meandering around" the area but no one near the body. Riley's first thought was to render first aid to the victim. As he approached he realized the man was unconscious. The pockets of the man's shorts were pulled inside out. Riley started to roll the man over but observed blood beginning to pool in the face and realized he was deceased. Riley observed apparent heavy blunt force trauma to the victim's face.
{¶ 12} Medics arrived and confirmed the victim was dead. Police ran the license plate of the red truck and discovered the owner of the truck was the likely victim, Ernest Morris. The victim matched the B.M.V. photo of Morris.
{¶ 13} Riley began to canvass the area for witnesses. He encountered several people who said they didn't know anything. On the corner of Fulton and Second, however, sitting on the steps of an apartment building, Riley made contact with Robert Ingram, known to the neighborhood as "Toby." Riley was familiar with Ingram and described him as a petty criminal often found in the area. Riley approached and asked if Ingram saw anything. Ingram said no but winked at Riley. Riley interpreted this to mean Ingram had information he didn't want to willingly share in front of others listening nearby. Riley pretended to arrest Ingram and brought him to his patrol car.
{¶ 14} Ingram provided Riley with two names: "Tink" and "Jessica." Riley put out descriptions of these individuals to other officers. He also learned "Charles Bishop" was a possible witness.
{¶ 15} Around 10:50 p.m. that evening, prior to the report of the homicide, an officer unwittingly made contact with Jessica Bryant. James Dereussi is a Canton police officer and was dispatched for a report of a fight between a man and a woman in the 200 block of Fulton Northwest on the night of the murder. As he approached the area, he observed a white female wearing a red skirt walking south on Fulton; the woman matched the description he had been given of the female involved in the fight. Dereussi stopped his patrol car in the middle of the street and called to the woman to ask if she was O.K.; she responded she was fine. Dereussi did not observe any injuries or "signs of distress" and allowed the woman to move on without asking her name.
{¶ 16} Dereussi later responded to the scene of the homicide and was given the names and descriptions of "Tink" and Jessica Bryant. He looked at a photo of Jessica Bryant and confirmed she was the woman in the red skirt he spoke to earlier.
{¶ 17} Dawn Remley testified she was familiar with Jessica Bryant as someone who frequented the area around Second and Fulton Northwest. Remley knew Bryant as a fellow prostitute and drug user. At the time of the murder, Bryant was dating appellant, who went by the street name "Tink."
{¶ 18} Robert Ingram testified reluctantly at trial. He acknowledged he knows Ptl. Riley and regularly hangs around the area of Second and Fulton Northwest. He acknowledged he is a drug user and a petty thief. Ingram knew appellant and Jessica Bryant to be "in a relationship" at the time of the murder.
{¶ 19} Ingram testified he saw both appellant and Bryant on the night of the murder between 10:30 and 11:15 p.m. Appellant was sitting on a porch with Ingram, drinking. Bryant walked by on the street. Shortly thereafter appellant left the porch. Ingram said he saw the lights of a vehicle pull up in the parking lot and saw "swinging" between someone outside the truck and someone inside the truck. Ingram stood up and watched briefly but didn't want to be involved.
{¶ 20} Soon after, an "old guy" came up and said there was a dead person in the parking lot so Ingram went to look at the body.
{¶ 21} Ingram acknowledged he signaled to Ptl. Riley that he had information about the murder although he was reluctant to make any unequivocal statement at trial. He acknowledged he told a detective that he watched the vehicle pull up in the parking lot, saw Jessica Bryant get out of it, and appellant walked by stating, "I think this motherfucker dead." Ingram also grudgingly agreed he "thinks" appellant was the person he observed in the parking lot with Ernest Morris and "thinks" he saw appellant strike Morris.
{¶ 22} Ingram didn't know "Tink's" real name is Anthony Cook although police confirmed the two had been in jail together.
{¶ 23} Appellee called a witness named Steven Nunemaker who was incarcerated with appellant in the same housing unit in prison. Within that unit was a third prisoner who functioned as a "jailhouse lawyer," Peyton Hopson. Prisoners spoke to Hopson for advice on their cases.
{¶ 24} On or around November 6, 2014, Nunemaker went to speak to Hopson about a motion filed in his own case. Appellant was speaking with Hopson at the time and Nunemaker joined in the conversation as appellant detailed the events of the night of Morris's murder.
{¶ 25} Appellant said he was sitting on a porch on the corner of Fulton and Second Street Northwest, drinking beer, when a truck pulled up in front of the apartment building and dropped off Dawn Remley. The truck proceeded around to the parking lot in the rear of the building. A woman appellant was seeing at the time, Jessica Bryant, went to the truck and spoke to the driver. Appellant and some "acquaintances" then approached the truck. One of these acquaintances was "Chuck," who reached into the window of the truck and removed the keys.
{¶ 26} Appellant got into an argument with Bryant which became "heated" and the driver of the truck got involved. The driver exited the truck and was assaulted by appellant and his acquaintances. Nunemaker testified appellant said the driver "fell like a seal," face forward onto the ground.
{¶ 27} Nunemaker said appellant was shadowboxing and simulating the fight scene as he described the events in prison to Nunemaker and Hopson. After the assault, he said he and Bryant left the scene in different directions. Appellant went to see someone named "Andre" to provide an alibi.
{¶ 28} Nunemaker testified appellant told of disposing of the victim's cell phone: an "orange piece of shit." Hopson asked if anyone could identify appellant and he said "Toby" and "Bishop."
{¶ 29} Hopson was confused about appellant's description of...
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