State v. David W. Allen
| Decision Date | 09 September 1993 |
| Docket Number | 62275,93-LW-3093 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee v. DAVID W. ALLEN, Defendant-Appellant |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
Criminal appeal from Common Pleas Court Case No. CR-264901.
For Plaintiff-Appellee: STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, THOMAS SAMMON, TIMOTHY DOBECK, ELAINE WELSH Assistants, The Justice Center, 1200 Ontario, Cleveland, Ohio 44113.
For Defendant-Appellant: RANDALL M. DANA, Ohio Public Defender KATHLEEN A. McGARRY, JANE P. PERRY, Assistants, Ohio Public Defender Commission, 8 East Long Street - 11th Floor Columbus, Ohio 43266-0587.
Defendant-appellant David W. Allen appeals from his jury conviction imposing the death penalty for the aggravated capital murder and aggravated robbery of Chloie English.
Defendant was originally indicted by the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury in Case No. CR-262899 February 1, 1991 on the following three charges, viz.: (1) aggravated murder, purposely with prior calculation and design, in violation of R.C. 2903.01(A); (2) aggravated murder, purposely while committing, attempting to commit, or while fleeing immediately after attempting to commit aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B); and (3) aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01. The three charges were each accompanied by aggravated felony specification based on defendant's prior 1981 conviction for aggravated arson. Defendant was thereafter reindicted in Case No. CR-264901 March 22, 1991 since the indictment in Case No. CR-262899 omitted capital specifications on the two aggravated murder charges. Defendant's indictment in Case No. CR-264901 contained the identical three aggravated murder and aggravated robbery charges with accompanying aggravated felony specifications; however, each aggravated murder counts was accompanied by a capital specification pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A) (7). Case No. CR-262899 was subsequently nolled.
The charges against defendant in Case No. CR-264901 proceeded to a jury trial commencing June 12, 1991 following the disposition of pending pretrial motions and jury selection. The prosecution presented testimony from the following ten witnesses to support the charges, viz., (1) three of the victim's friends, Judy S. Sperry, Cathy Ann Curry and Constance L. Dickson; (2) one of the victim's three daughters, Janet Louise English; (3) three forensic witnesses, including assistant coroner Dr. Carlos Santoscoy, Jr., trace evidence expert Mrs. Kay Ann May, and fingerprint expert Detective Edward Walsh; (4) two City of Bedford police officers, Detectives Gerry Artl and Timothy P. Oleksiak; and (5) Regional Transit Authority ("RTA") bus driver Gilbert Pittman.
The testimony revealed the victim, Chloie English, an eighty-four year old woman lived alone in her house at 1377 Broadway Avenue in Bedford, Ohio prior to her death. She had become acquainted with defendant and her three friends who testified through the Bedford Church of the Nazarene. The evidence adduced at trial is briefly summarized as follows:
Judy Sperry testified she ate dinner with the. victim on January 24, 1991 following an afternoon visit. Sperry recalled the victim had to unlock the door of her house to let her in. Sperry stated the victim was wearing her eyeglasses when she left at approximately 5:45 p.m. Constance Dickson, the school crossing guard at the nearby intersection of Henry and Broadway Avenue, testified she had known the victim for fifty years and observed nothing unusual at the victim's house that day. However, Dickson observed during her morning shift on the following day, Friday, January 25, 1991, that the victim had not placed her trash out to be picked up by the garbagemen as usual.
Cathy Curry testified she and her husband Jackie discovered the victim's body on the floor in the living room of the victim's house when they arrived at her house to take her to a prayer meeting at approximately 6:45 p.m. January 25, 1991. Although the victim had always previously kept her doors locked while she waited for them in the dining room, on this occasion the front door was unlocked and the back door was ajar. The victim's house was a mess and the gas fireplace in the living room was burning with a number of objects. Curry, a registered nurse, determined the victim had been dead for some time and called 911 from the dining room telephone.
The victim's daughter and executrix of her estate, Janet English, testified she visited the victim regularly prior to her death. English stated the victim always kept a small amount of cash at home and had her hair done each week on Saturday. She paid cash at the hairdresser's. The victim's purse and wallet were among the items burned in the fireplace. English testified there was no cash in the victim's wallet and her five credit cards and checkbook were missing from her purse.
Dickson and English testified the victim became acquainted with defendant while conducting a prison ministry. The victim corresponded with the prisoners in her ministry program by mail and visited them in prison. English testified the victim was "visibly shaking" when she received a telephone call from "David" on her birthday approximately two weeks before her death on January 9, 1991. Curry testified she had previously prayed with the victim about a conversation the victim had with defendant in the summer of 1990 after defendant's parole. Defendant was the only prisoner from the victim's prison ministry who was no longer in prison.
Dr. Carlos Santoscoy, Jr. testified he performed an autopsy on the eighty-four year old, four foot ten inch, one hundred eleven pound victim on January 26, 1991. Santoscoy stated the victimsuffered sixteen stab wounds, both her wrists were slashed and the victim had bruises around her head and neck. Santoscoy testified the victim died from multiple stab wounds, cervical compression by strangulation, and multiple blunt impacts which caused her brain to hemorrhage. He concluded the death was a homicide and estimated the time of death was between midnight and 6:00 a.m. on January 25, 1991. The absence of stomach contents indicated the victim died at least four hours after her meal with Sperry. The beds in the victims house were made and had not been slept in.
Fingerprint expert Detective Edward Walsh from the Regional Forensic Laboratory of Lake County, testified he discovered defendant's right thumb print facing downward on the inside surface of the left lens of the victim's eyeglasses recovered by the police approximately "one to two" feet from the victim's dead body. No other identifiable fingerprints were found on the victim's eyeglasses or the crime scene.
Trace evidence expert Kay Ann May of the Cuyahoga County Coroner's office testified she performed scientific tests on several items recovered by the police from the victim's house and defendant's room at his parents house following his arrest January 29, 1991. May testified based on her analysis of blood samples that both the victim and defendant had type O blood. However, defendant also had the characteristic of secreting his blood type in his saliva. The victim did not. May stated she discovered type O saliva secretions on five of ten Doral cigarette butts found in the wastebasket in the victim's home. May testified she also tested twelve of nineteen cigarette butts recovered from defendant's home and nine cigarette butts recovered from defendant's bedroom. She concluded eight of the cigarettes from defendant's bedroom were smoked by a type O secretor.
RTA bus driver Gilbert Pittman testified defendant boarded his No. 41 route Warrensville bus shortly after 6:00 a.m. on January 25, 1991 at the East Grace and Center bus stop. This bus stop was a measured distance of 1.3 miles from the victim's house by major thoroughfare but less by a more direct route. Pittman testified defendant was acting "hyper" and talked about his "cousin" who worked as an RTA supervisor. Defendant was the only passenger on the bus for approximately seven minutes and obtained a transfer before departing at the Van Aken rapid station approximately twenty minutes thereafter. Defendant lived with his parents at an apartment on Van Aken.
Bedford Police Detectives Gerry Artl and Timothy Oleksiak testified concerning their response to the 911 call from the victim's house, subsequent investigation and arrest of defendant on January 29, 1991. When arrested, defendant was wearing a black leather coat over a blue denim jeans jacket which had been stained by type O blood on the right sleeve. The police found a No. 41 bus transfer dated January 25, 1991 in his front pants pocket. Oleksiak testified defendant was not scheduled to work at Dunkin Donuts in Northfield the night of January 24, 1991, but was scheduled and didnot show up for work on the evening of January 25, 1991. The police also discovered a Greyhound bus refund receipt dated January 25, 1991 at 11:28 p.m. in defendant's possession and two packed suitcases under his bed at his apartment on Van Aken in Shaker Heights. Det. Artl testified defendant's mother brought defendant several packages of Doral brand cigarettes when she visited him in jail on January 31, 1991 and defendant's father was an RTA supervisor.
The prosecution rested its case following the introduction of one hundred sixteen photographs and exhibits into evidence. Defendant presented no witnesses. The trial court thereafter submitted the case to the jury following closing arguments by the parties and the trial court's instructions. The jury returned a verdict following its deliberations June 15, 1991 finding defendant guilty on two counts of aggravated murder one count of aggravated robbery and the capital specifications in the...
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