State v. David A. Sneed

Decision Date22 May 1989
Docket Number89-LW-1848,CA-6976
PartiesSTATE of Ohio, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David A. SNEED, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtOhio Court of Appeals

Criminal Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 84-4515.

Robert D. Horowitz, Prosecuting Attorney, Richard D. Reinbold, Jr. Ass't Prosecuting Attorney Chief, Criminal Division Timothy Andrews, Ass't Prosecuting Attorney, Criminal Division, Canton, for plaintiff-appellee.

Jack A Blakeslee, Canton, for defendant-appellant.

Before PUTMAN, P.J., and MILLIGAN and HOFFMAN, JJ.

JOURNAL ENTRY OF JUDGMENT AND OPINION AND FINDINGS OF THE COURT

PUTMAN Presiding Judge.

Appellant, David A. Sneed (appellant), appeals from a death penalty judgment imposed following a jury verdict of guilty of the crime of aggravated murder.

On November 19, 1984, the body of one Herbert M. Rowan (Rowan), was found sprawled on the banks of Nimishillan Creek near the Allen Street bridge in Canton, Ohio. The corpse was found wrapped in a plastic garment bag marked "Joe Slaughter Men's Store." A cement block had been tied to Rowan's ankles by what appeared to be an electrical cord with a plug on the end, and a second cord was tied to Rowan's neck. Another cement block tied with an electrical cord lay within two feet of the body. The body was without shoes, socks, or jewelry, clothed only in a cowboy shirt and jeans.

Shortly after the discovery of the body, police detectives and crime lab personnel were called to the location and an investigation ensued. Rowan's body was removed to the office of the coroner where an autopsy was performed. The necropsy revealed that Rowan had been shot two times in the head at close range. Traces of phenobarbital, librium, and valium were found in his blood and Rowan's blood alcohol level was .221. It was further determined that Rowan suffered from "chronic pancreatitis" and "chronic alcoholism," and it was opined that he was a drug abuser. The coroner concluded that either shot to the head "could have produced death." It was later established that the shots to the head were fired from a .25 caliber handgun.

On December 5, 1984, parole officer Pat Munford received a telephone call from one Roxanne Goosby, a patient in Timken Mercy Medical Center. Goosby advised Munford that she had been assaulted by David Sneed (appellant), and that "she could not understand why (he) had not been arrested." The next day Munford went to the hospital to interview Goosby. Goosby related that she was appellant's fiance and that she was renting an apartment with him at 1460 Water Court, Canton, Ohio. She stated that appellant had called her at the hospital, told her that he had a pistol, and "threatened to come get me out." She also told Munford that she had heard that appellant "had been seen in local bars flashing or showing a small handgun ," and "that there was a suspicion of him having some type of pimping or soliciting prostitution activities with certain females in the Canton area." Munford left the hospital after obtaining Goosby's consent to search the apartment.

On December 7, 1984, appellant was called into Munford's office for a "routine office visit." Present with Munford at the interview was Munford's supervisor, senior parole officer David Slater. Shortly thereafter, the two policeman arrived in response to the call from Munford with a warrant for appellant's arrest on an assault charge filed by Roxanne Goosby. Munford advised appellant that he was under arrest for violating his parole and "also that there was an active warrant for assault."

Munford then declared that he learned that appellant had a gun. He asked appellant if he had any "contraband, weapons or illegal drugs" in his apartment. When appellant responded that he did not, Munford requested permission to search appellant's apartment. Although appellant denied that he agreed to the search of his home, Munford, Slater, and the policemen asserted that appellant approved the search, proclaiming that "he had nothing to hide." Thereafter, while appellant was delivered to the jail, Munford and Slater searched appellant's home.

Upon arrival at appellant's apartment, Munford and Slater met appellant's landlady and aunt, Mary Mosley, and obtained her permission to search the apartment. She gave Slater a key to appellant's apartment. Since Mosley occupied the front apartment to 1460 Water Court, she decided to follow them to the back of the building to appellant's home. Munford knocked on the front door and it was opened by Chevette Brown. Munford and Slater identified themselves as parole officers and maintained that they had appellant's and Goosby's permission to search the apartment. Thereupon, Brown permitted Slater and Munford to enter appellant's home. After Munford and Slater started to search the apartment, Roxanne Goosby arrived. While Munford was rummaging through the bedroom of the apartment, he looked under a mattress on the bed in the room and found a "small caliber" handgun. Munford then asked Brown who owned the weapon. Brown responded that it was appellant's. Before the search was ended, Munford had also found an empty .22 caliber shell box and a "right-hand glove with the fingertips cut off with the heavy metal disks, lead disks of some sort in the back of the palm of the hand."

Later that day, Munford and Slater went to the police station and delivered the handgun to Detective Sergeant Steiner, who, incidentally, was in charge of the investigation into Rowan's death. Steiner noted that the weapon was a .25 caliber Raven arms semi-automatic handgun. Steiner immediately delivered the gun, along with the weighted jogger's glove and shell box, to the crime lab for ballistic tests since, coincidentally, a .25 caliber pistol was used in the Rowan shooting.

A few days later, Steiner learned that the handgun taken from appellant's apartment could be the weapon used to kill Herbert Rowan. Accordingly, Steiner went to appellant's apartment and questioned Goosby and Brown about the gun. Brown stated that she had purchased it. Brown admitted that she had been questioned about the gun previously by the parole officers, but stated that "she was afraid to tell them it was her gun, that she had bought the gun for fear that she would be in trouble also."

On December 14, 1984, detectives Steiner and O'Brian conducted a search of appellant's apartment with a warrant. Goosby and Brown were present. The items seized were an imitation leather coat, a brown nylon jacket, a blue towel, two lamps with severed cords attached, a zippo lighter, scrub brush and rabbit fur coat.

At the conclusion of the search, Brown was arrested on "an outstanding warrant for contempt of court." While at the police station, Brown gave a seventy-three-page statement wherein, she confessed complicity with appellant in the killing of Herbert Rowan and related the circumstances of the murder over a period of seven and one-half hours. At the conclusion of her statement, Brown accompanied the detectives to the scene.

On or about January 14, 1985, FBI agent and ballistics expert Richard Crum compared the rifling impressions of the slugs removed from Rowan's skull to the rifling in the barrel of the .25 caliber weapon removed from appellant's apartment. He concluded that this weapon was the one used to shoot Herbert Rowan.

Indictments were returned against appellant and Chevette Brown on February 1, 1985, charging in count one that appellant and Ms. Brown "did purposely cause the death of Herbert M. Rowan, while committing or attempting to commit, or while fleeing immediately after committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery, having specifically intended to cause the death of Herbert M. Rowan, and/or did aid, and/or abet, and/or conspire with each other in so doing." The Grand Jury further found and specified regarding the aggravated murder:

that the said CHEVETTE DENISE BROWN and DAVID ALLEN SNEED did purposely cause the death of Herbert M. Rowan while the said CHEVETTE DENISE BROWN and DAVID ALLEN SNEED were committing, attempting to commit or fleeing immediately after committing or attempting to commit Aggravated Robbery, and/or did aid and/or abet and/or conspire with each other in so doing, and the said CHEVETTE DENISE BROWN and DAVID ALLEN SNEED were the principal offenders in the commission of the aggravated murder of Herbert M. Rowan, same being an aggravating circumstance listed in Section 2929.04 of the Ohio Revised Code.

Brown and appellant were also charged with aggravated robbery and both counts had a gun specification.®1¯

The testimony adduced during the guilt phase of appellant's trial may be summarized as follows. Herbert Rowan called his friend, Fred Stephan, in Canton, Ohio, from Chicago O'Hare airport at 2:00 a.m., November 17, 1984, declaring that he, Rowan, would be visiting Stephan that day. At approximately 7:00 a.m., Rowan arrived at Stephan's home driving a "brand new Buick a real dark blue, midnight blue rented." Rowan had been drinking. Stephan observed that Rowan had a "Zippo" brand cigarette lighter, credit cards and money. He was wearing a neck-chain, watch, identification bracelet and ring. Stephan described Rowan as "a big operator."

Later, Rowan and Stephan went to a department store where Rowan bought a shirt and black ankle boots. After visiting at Stephan's home for the greater part of the day, Rowan left at approximately 7:00 p.m. to "go drinking."

That evening, one Frank Fitzgerald observed Rowan at the "300" Club bar dressed in a "white western shirt sort of black like," and wearing a "name bracelet, something like that." He noticed that Rowan had been driving an "83 or 84 Buick Century." He observed Rowan...

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