State v. Drummond
| Citation | 2006 Ohio 5084,111 Ohio St.3d 14,854 N.E.2d 1038 |
| Decision Date | 18 October 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 2004-0586.,2004-0586. |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. DRUMMOND, Appellant. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Ohio |
Paul J. Gains, Mahoning County Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy E. Franken, Chief Criminal Prosecutor, and Rhys B. Cartwright-Jones, Appellate Counsel, for appellee.
Dennis A. DiMartino, L.P.A., Dennis A DiMartino, and John P. Laczko, Youngstown, for appellant.
{¶ 1} On the evening of March 24, 2003, during a drive-by shooting, assault-rifle bullets and 9 mm shots were fired into the home of Jiyen Dent in Youngstown, Ohio. One bullet killed three-month-old Jiyen Dent Jr., who was in the living room. John E. Drummond Jr., was indicted, tried, and convicted by a jury of the aggravated murder of the infant Jiyen.
{¶ 2} Drummond was charged with two counts of aggravated murder. Count One charged Drummond with the aggravated murder of Jiyen with prior calculation and design. Count Two charged Drummond with aggravated murder for purposely causing the death of a child under 13 years of age.
{¶ 3} Both counts included death-penalty specifications for a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of, or attempt to kill, two or more persons, R.C. 2929.04(A)(5), and murder of a child under 13 years of age, R.C. 2929.04(A)(9). Drummond was also charged with attempted murder in Counts Three and Four, felonious assault in Counts Five and Six, and improperly discharging a firearm in Count Seven. Each count included a firearm specification. Count Eight, having a weapon while under a disability, was severed from the other counts and later dismissed. Drummond's friend, Wayne Gilliam, was indicted, tried, and convicted in a separate case and was sentenced to 54 years to life in prison. The court of appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court. State v. Gilliam, Mahoning App. No. 03-MA-176, 2005-Ohio-2791, 2005 WL 1324751.
{¶ 4} Drummond now appeals his convictions and sentence of death.
{¶ 5} The state presented several witnesses who testified at Drummond's trial that Drummond and Brett Schroeder were members of the Lincoln Knolls Crips gang and considered themselves "original gangsters," or "OGs." Schroeder died from gunshot wounds in May 1998 in a death ruled a homicide. The perpetrator was convicted and is serving time in prison.
{¶ 6} The Dent family, Jiyen Dent Sr., Latoya Butler, his girlfriend, and their son, Jiyen Dent Jr., had moved into a home at 74 Rutledge Drive in Youngstown around March 20, 1998. Dent did not know Drummond, Gilliam, or Schroeder.
{¶ 7} In the early evening of the shooting, a few days after Dent moved in, ten to 20 people gathered for a party outside the home of Gail Miller on Duncan Avenue in Youngstown to drink and listen to music. Sometime that evening, Drummond and Gilliam arrived.
{¶ 8} During the party, James "Cricket" Rozenblad overheard Drummond, Gilliam, and Andre Bryant talking about a "guy moving in in [their] neighborhood [who] could have had something to do with the death of Brett Schroeder." Yaraldean Thomas also saw Drummond and Gilliam whispering to one another and heard Drummond say "It's on" after they finished talking.
{¶ 9} Drummond left the party and returned a short time later with an assault rifle. He and Gilliam then got into Gilliam's burgundy Chevrolet Monte Carlo and drove down Duncan Lane toward Rutledge Drive. Approximately five to 15 minutes later, 11 shots were fired from an assault rifle into the Dent home. Within a few seconds, a 9 mm round was fired into the Dent home, and five 9 mm rounds were fired into the home of Diane Patrick, the Dents' next-door neighbor, who lived at 76 Rutledge Drive.
{¶ 10} At around 11:25 p.m. that evening, Dent was in the living room watching a movie, Butler was in the kitchen, and Jiyen was in a baby swing in the living room. While watching TV, Dent heard gunshots and saw "bullets start coming through the windows and the walls." He then picked up the baby and ran down the hallway towards the bathroom. Dent fell in the hallway and noticed that Jiyen had been shot in the head. After making sure that his girlfriend was safe, Dent called 911.
{¶ 11} That same night, Rebecca Perez, who lived nearby on Rutledge Drive, heard two series of shots when taking her trash outside. She saw shots coming from the corner of Duncan Lane and Rutledge Drive and noticed "a shadow up the street." Shortly thereafter, Perez saw a maroon car pull out of the driveway next to 65 Rutledge Drive, where Drummond lived. The car then drove without any headlights on past the Perez home. Approximately half an hour to 45 minutes later, Perez noticed that the maroon car had returned to the driveway next to Drummond's home. At trial, Perez identified Gilliam's Monte Carlo as the car she had seen that night.
{¶ 12} Leonard Schroeder, the brother of Brett Schroeder, who had been killed nearly five years before, lived near Rutledge Drive. On the evening of March 24, Leonard heard a series of gunshots. Shortly afterwards, Drummond and Gilliam arrived at Leonard's home in Gilliam's car. Leonard asked Drummond about the shots, and Drummond said that he Gilliam said only that "some fools are shooting over there."
{¶ 13} Arriving police and paramedics found that Jiyen had been killed. Investigators secured the scene and began their investigation. Officer Kerry Wigley walked down Rutledge Drive, looking for shell casings, and noticed two men in the dark, leaning against a car parked in a driveway. Wigley intercepted the two men, asked for their identification, and identified them as Drummond and Gilliam.
{¶ 14} During the investigation, Patrolman David Wilson found ten cartridge casings from assault-rifle ammunition lying between two houses that were across the street and several houses away from the Dent home on Rutledge Drive. The police also found six 9 mm shell casings at the corner of Rutledge Drive and Duncan Lane.
{¶ 15} Investigators found that someone had fired 11 bullets from an assault rifle into the Dent home. Three bullets had hit the house near the front door, three others had hit elsewhere on the front of the house, and five bullets had hit the west side of the house where the bedrooms were located. A 9 mm bullet hole was also found on the east side of the Dent home.
{¶ 16} Ed Carlini, an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation ("BCI") agent, examined the trajectory of the bullets entering the Dent home. Carlini determined that the shots had originated from a location on Rutledge Drive where ten shell casings were found. He also determined that the 9 mm shot that hit the Dent home originated from east of the house.
{¶ 17} Carlini and Officer Anthony Marzullo, a crime lab technician, examined bullet holes inside the Dent home. There were five bullet holes inside the southwest bedroom and three bullet holes inside the northwest bedroom. One bullet entered the living room, fragmented, and was found in the far living-room wall. A 9 mm slug was found in the kitchen wall. Marzullo recovered other bullet fragments and copper-jacketed slugs inside the house. He also recovered bullet fragments and bits of blue plastic that had been removed from the victim during the autopsy.
{¶ 18} Andrew Chappell, a ballistics expert, compared the ten 7.62 x 39 mm assault-rifle cartridge casings and concluded that they could have been fired from the same firearm. He stated that an assault rifle such as an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle would have fired this ammunition. Chappell examined the six 9 mm cartridge casings and concluded that each of the casings had been fired from the same firearm. Chappell also examined the slugs and bullet fragments obtained from the Dent home and identified one 9 mm Luger bullet, a 7.62 mm bullet, a 7.62 mm bullet jacket fragment, a piece of metal, and a couple of lead fragments. He determined that the 7.62 bullet and the 7.62 bullet jacket fragment were fired from the same weapon, but he was unable to make any comparisons with the lead fragment and the blue plastic recovered from the victim at the autopsy.
{¶ 19} As the murder investigation progressed, Drummond and Gilliam were identified as suspects. On March 27, 2003, the police searched Drummond's Rutledge Drive residence and arrested him. When he was arrested, Drummond told police During the search, the police seized a drum containing 75 rounds of 7.62 x 39 mm ammunition, three boxes containing 46 rounds of 7.62 x 39 mm ammunition, a single round of 7.62 x 39 mm ammunition, an empty AK magazine, a Taurus 9 mm handgun with no barrel, a bulletproof vest, and several rounds of 9 mm, .45 caliber, and .357 caliber ammunition.
{¶ 20} During the search of Drummond's residence, police also seized an album of gang photographs of the Lincoln Knolls Crips. Drummond appears in many photographs. The album also contained a number of photographs and tributes to Brett Schroeder and other members of the gang who had been killed. One page of the album shows two photographs of Drummond with a cake that says, "RIP Brett." Another photograph shows tattoos of guns, tombstones, and other symbols on Drummond's back. The tombstone tattoo contains Schroeder's name and names of Drummond's other dead friends.
{¶ 21} Dr. Dorothy Dean, Deputy Coroner for Franklin County, conducted the autopsy of three-month-old Jiyen. Dean testified that Jiyen died from a gunshot wound to the head. The entry wound was on the back of...
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