State v. David L. Myers
| Decision Date | 12 February 1999 |
| Docket Number | 99-LW-0755,C.A. 98 CA 38 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee v. DAVID L. MYERS, Defendant-Appellant C.A. CASE NO. 98 CA 38. |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
William F. Schenck, Pros. Attorney; Robert K. Hendrix, Asst. Pros Attorney, 45 N. Detroit Street, Xenia, Ohio 45385, Atty. Reg. No. 0037351, Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellee
David H. Bodiker, State Public Defender; Joseph E. Wilhelm Appellate Supervisor, Atty. Reg. No. 0055407; A. Ruben Lopez Asst. State Public Defender, 8 East Long Street, 11th Flr Columbus, Ohio 43215-2998, Atty. Reg. No.0059055, Attorney for Defendant- Appellee.
David Lee Myers appeals from his conviction and sentence of death on one count of aggravated murder with a death penalty specification. Myers' conviction and sentence stems from the brutal murder and sexual mutilation of Amanda Maher, which occurred on August 4, 1988.
On the evening of August 3, 1988, Amanda Maher and Glenn Smith went to Five Points Tavern, in Xenia. Defendant, David Lee Myers, entered the bar and began playing pool with Smith and Lee Weimer, a bartender. During the course of the evening Glenn Smith had quite a bit to drink. Around 12:30 - 1:00 a.m. on August 4, 1988, Amanda Maher, Glenn Smith, and David Myers left Five Points Tavern in Smith's car and drove to another bar a short distance away, the Roundtable.
When they arrived at the Roundtable, Amanda Maher went inside while Glenn Smith and David Lee Myers argued in the parking lot outside. When Smith and Myers entered the bar, Smith became rowdy and broke a glass, prompting the barmaid to call police.
At approximately 1:13 a.m. Xenia Police Officers Savage and Rinehart arrived at the Roundtable and arrested Glenn Smith for disorderly conduct. Police gave Smith's wallet to Amanda Maher to enable her to get home. David Myers told Glenn Smith and Officer Savage that he would make sure Amanda Maher got home. Officers Savage and Rinehart then transported Glenn Smith to the Greene County Jail. Officer Rinehart resumed his normal patrol duties at 1:23 a.m.
Amanda Maher and David Lee Myers searched both inside and outside the Roundtable bar for the keys to Glenn Smith's car, but couldn't find them. They then left together. Another patron, Charles Van Hoose, saw them walking across the parking lot in the direction of Home Avenue. At approximately 1:30 - 1:35 a.m., Officer Rinehart observed Amanda Maher and David Lee Myers walking down Home Avenue, near the intersection with South Detroit Street.
At 2:10 a.m., David Lee Myers was seen by Lee Weimer, the bartender at Five Points Tavern, and Brenda Osborne, one of the customers, getting into his car, which was parked across the street from Five Points Tavern. At approximately 2:15 a.m., Myers entered the Roundtable bar at last call and ordered a drink. Myers immediately went to the restroom, and upon his return sat down and began to talk with another customer, Don Hilderbran. When Hilderbran asked Myers if he "got any," Myers responded that he tried but "she" wasn't willing so he just dropped her off. Myers subsequently left the Roundtable and went to Hilderbran's house.
At around 3:00 a.m., Jennifer Berry and Julia Griffith were walking through an old railroad bed area near Railroad Street in Xenia when they discovered Amanda Maher, lying on the tracks and gasping for air. The area is on a path that is a direct walking route between Five Points Tavern and the Roundtable bar. Berry and Griffith ran home and called police.
At approximately 3:40 a.m., Xenia police officers, including Officers Savage and Rinehart, arrived on the scene. They discovered Amanda Maher lying on her back with the right side of her face turned upward. She was naked but for a shirt that was pulled up around her neck. A railroad spike had been driven into Amanda Maher's head at the temple. She was gasping for air. Amanda Maher's injuries were so severe that Officer Savage didn't recognize her. Amanda Maher was just three hundred yards from where Officer Rinehart had seen her and David Lee Myers walking together. Amanda Maher died while being care flighted to Miami Valley Hospital.
Xenia Police quickly classified David Lee Myers as a suspect. When questioned, Myers told police that Amanda Maher was at the Roundtable bar looking for Glenn Smith's car keys when he last saw her. Myers' statement conflicted with the observations of Officer Rinehart, who had seen Amanda Maher and David Lee Myers walking together just three hundred yards from the murder scene. When police confronted Myers with Officer Rinehart's observation, Myers had no response. Police then arrested David Lee Myers and charged him with the murder of Amanda Maher.
An autopsy revealed that Amanda Maher had been strangled. Three rocks had been pushed into the victim's vaginal cavity. She had a laceration to her forehead consistent with an attempt to drive the railroad spike into her skull at that location. Cause of death was severe head trauma from the railroad spike that was driven through her head at the right temple.
A taping of Amanda Maher's pubic area produced a foreign pubic hair. Forensic testing, including microscopic and DNA analysis, indicated that Glenn Smith and two other potential suspects, Gregg Grimes and Terry Rogers, could not have been the donor of that hair. The foreign pubic hair was microscopically similar in all respects to David Myers' known pubic hair standard. Further, Myers was included within the two percent of the Caucasian population that could have been the donor of that hair. When police conducted a search of Myers' car, they discovered the wallets of Amanda Maher and Glenn Smith underneath the front seat, concealed inside a glove.
After he was jailed on this murder charge Myers spoke with another inmate, Clarence David Tincher. While the two men were discussing their past sexual exploits, Myers stated that they couldn't get him on a rape. Myers then asked Tincher if he ever put three rocks up a girl. When Tincher replied no, Myers stated that he had done that. A few days later when Tincher asked Myers "why" a railroad spike, Myers responded, "because it was handy." Myers then told Tincher never to try and drive anything through a person's forehead because it won't go, but it will go through the temple. When Myers made these statements to Tincher the details of this crime, including the rocks that were in the victim's vagina, the forehead wound, and the temple location of the railroad spike through her head, had not yet been made public by Xenia police.
On August 8, 1988, David Lee Myers was indicted on one count of Aggravated Murder, R.C. 2903.01(B), with a death penalty specification that the offense had been committed while Myers was committing aggravated robbery, and that Myers was the principal offender in the aggravated murder. R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). The case number assigned to this cause was 88-CR-251. Following years of extensive pretrial litigation, the State dismissed this case via a nolle prosequi on February 1, 1991.
Two years later, on February 4, 1993, David Lee Myers was reindicted in case number 93-CR-66 on this same charge, with the same death penalty specification. Once again there was extensive pretrial litigation. A jury trial commenced on January 2, 1996. Myers' defense at trial was that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he was Amanda Maher's killer. According to Myers' theory of the case, two other persons, Gregg Grimes and Terry Rogers, were likely perpetrators of the crime.
On February 8, 1996, the jury found David Lee Myers guilty as charged. The penalty phase of the proceedings began on February 20, 1996, following which the jury concluded that the aggravating circumstance outweighed the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, on February 23, 1996, the jury recommended that David Lee Myers be sentenced to death. The trial court, after conducting its own independent review, reached the same conclusion. Thus, on March 1, 1996, the trial court sentenced David Lee Myers to death for the aggravated murder of Amanda Maher. The trial court also imposed a sentence of ten to twenty-five years imprisonment for aggravated robbery. On March 14, 1996, the trial court filed an amended sentencing entry deleting the sentence for aggravated robbery.
David Lee Myers has timely appealed to this court from his conviction and death sentence. He presents twenty assignments of error for our review, alleging numerous prejudicial errors arising from the investigation of this case through the penalty phase of his capital murder trial.
This assignment of error concerns "other acts" evidence which the trial court admitted pursuant to Evid.R. 404(B).
Deborah Reagin testified that on February 9, 1986, she and her boyfriend were drinking in a bar in Xenia when they had an argument, following which her boyfriend left her alone at the bar without a ride home. Defendant Myers was present in the bar at that time. He bought Reagin a drink and offered her a ride home, which she accepted. Myers drove Reagin to a cemetery, where he forced her out of the car and raped her at knife point. Myers then drove Reagin home and released her unharmed in front of her residence. As a result of these events, David Myers was charged with rape and subsequently convicted of sexual battery.
The trial court admitted this evidence at Myers, trial over defense...
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