State v. Durr
| Decision Date | 20 March 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-291,90-291 |
| Citation | 568 N.E.2d 674,58 Ohio St.3d 86 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. DURR, Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
On January 31, 1988, at approximately 10:50 p.m., Norma Jean O'Nan and her husband returned to their home in Elyria and discovered the front door unlocked, the lights and television on, and their sixteen-year-old daughter, Angel Vincent, missing. Only twenty minutes earlier, Mrs. O'Nan had spoken with her daughter by telephone to learn that Angel's girlfriend, Deborah Mullins, was at her home and that Deborah's boyfriend, appellant Darryl Durr, was expected to arrive later in the evening. That was the last chance Mrs. O'Nan would have to speak to her daughter alive.
Mrs. O'Nan testified that Angel was wearing a hot pink sweater, a light pink and white checkered blouse, hot pink pants, and white tennis shoes when she and her husband left Angel home alone on the evening of January 31, 1988. After notifying the Elyria Police of Angel's disappearance, Mrs. O'Nan searched her home to determine if any of Angel's belongings were missing. Although Angel's pink pants were found, Mrs. O'Nan's search revealed the following items missing: an old lavender blanket with a hole in the center, a pair of black acid-washed denim jeans, Angel's pink and white checkered blouse, light blue eyeglasses that Angel wore only in her home, a jean jacket that Angel had borrowed from a friend, an Avon necklace with an "A" charm attached, a small chain bracelet, an Avon slip-on bracelet, an inexpensive rhinestone ring and a dog chain that hung from her mirror. Mrs. O'Nan also discovered Angel's handbag stuffed under her bed.
Three or four days later, Mrs. O'Nan confronted Deborah Mullins and the appellant regarding the disappearance of her daughter, and was told by the appellant that "you know how kids are, she probably ran away."
On April 30, 1988, three boys noticed a foul odor coming from two orange traffic barrels while playing in Brookside Park. The barrels had been placed open end to open end, and were underneath a railroad tie. Upon separating the barrels, the boys discovered a severely decomposed female body that had been wrapped in a dirty old blanket. A portion of a leg was visible through a large hole in the blanket.
A deputy coroner testified that the only clothing found on the victim was a pink sweater and a pair of white tennis shoes. The pink sweater had been pushed up well above the victim's breast area. An initial external examination determined the body to be that of a young white female, who was in an advanced state of decomposition. The body was heavily infested with maggots and the body's eyes and ears had been lost. There was also prominent evidence of animal activity about the inguinal and vulval regions of the body, and in and about the thighs. According to the deputy coroner, the decomposition was consistent with three months' exposure.
After examining the body, the deputy coroner concluded that the cause of death was homicidal violence. Since the body was so badly decomposed, the deputy coroner could not determine whether ligature marks, scrapes or tears indicating strangulation were present. There was no damage noted to the internal cartilaginous structures of the neck. The deputy coroner declined, however, to rule out strangulation as a cause of death since damage to these structures is not always present in young strangulation victims due to the flexibility of these structures. In addition, because the body was so severely infested with bacteria, testing for the presence of acid phosphates and spermatozoa was inconclusive.
In September 1988, after appellant was arrested for two unrelated rapes, Deborah Mullins revealed her knowledge of Angel's disappearance to the Cleveland Police Department. As the result of her information, an ankle X-ray obtained from Elyria Memorial Hospital, and dental records, the body discovered in Brookside Park was determined to be that of Angel Vincent.
At trial, Deborah Mullins testified that on the evening Angel disappeared Deborah had asked the appellant to drive to the house of one of Angel's friends to retrieve a package of cigarettes for Angel. Appellant agreed and left. Shortly thereafter, appellant returned to Deborah's house and, instead of entering through the front door, began throwing stones at her upstairs bedroom window and blew his car horn for her to come out. Deborah and her baby, who had been fathered by the appellant, left the house and entered the appellant's car where the appellant brandished a knife toward both of them.
As the appellant was driving, Deborah heard noises from the back seat and after turning around discovered Angel bound on the rear floorboard.
According to Deborah's testimony, Angel was wearing black acid-washed denim jeans, a jean jacket, and tennis shoes when she was last seen in the back of appellant's car.
When Deborah asked the appellant why Angel was bound in his car, the appellant responded that he intended to "waste" her because "she would tell." He never revealed just what Angel was going to tell.
After threatening the life of both Deborah and his baby, the appellant let Deborah out of his car. He returned to her home three or four hours later. Upon returning, appellant told Deborah that he had "wasted" Angel and that she should pack her things because they were leaving.
Appellant drove Deborah and their baby to his wife's, Janice Durr's, Cleveland apartment. After dropping Deborah and the baby off, the appellant left with a duffle bag containing two shovels.
When appellant returned, he was wet and covered with snow. Upon entering the room, appellant placed a ring and bracelet that belonged to Angel on a coffee table. As he was falling asleep, appellant told Deborah that he had strangled Angel with a dog chain until she "pissed, pooped and shit and made a few gurgling sounds," took her body to a park, wrapped it in a blanket, placed it between two construction cones, and left her by some railroad tracks.
Later that day or the next day, appellant burned a bag of clothing in the basement of Janice Durr's apartment building and asked Deborah to model the black acid-washed jeans that Angel had worn on the evening of her abduction.
The appellant then drove Deborah, Janice Durr and his children to the west side of Cleveland where he burned another bag of items, and while driving from Cleveland toward Elyria, the appellant threw Angel's jean jacket out the car window.
After arriving at Deborah's home in Elyria, Deborah's mother informed her that Mrs. O'Nan had come over and inquired about Deborah's knowledge of Angel's disappearance. Deborah testified that appellant threatened her and their baby's life and instructed her to tell Mrs. O'Nan that Angel had been talking about running away. Deborah also testified that the appellant took her and their baby to Edgewater Park where the appellant threw Angel's glasses over a cliff into the lake. A month or so later, while driving past the Cleveland Zoo, appellant pointed to a location near a bridge and said, "Over there." When Deborah questioned his statement, the appellant replied, "You know what I am talking about."
Following a jury trial appellant was convicted of one count of aggravated murder, R.C. 2903.01, with specifications, pursuant to R.C. 2929.04(A)(7), that the murder was committed while the appellant was committing, attempting to commit, or fleeing after committing aggravated robbery, rape, and kidnapping, (2) kidnapping, R.C. 2905.01, with a violence specification, (3) aggravated robbery, R.C. 2911.01, with a violence specification, and (4) rape, R.C. 2907.02, with a violence specification.
The cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right.
Stephanie J. Tubbs Jones, Pros. Atty., and Carmen M. Marino, Cleveland, for appellee.
David L. Doughten and Michael C. Hennenberg, Cleveland, for appellant.
In his fourteen propositions of law, the defendant-appellant asserts various errors by the trial and appellate courts. This court has previously decided many of these legal questions, and they will therefore be disposed of accordingly. State v. Poindexter (1988), 36 Ohio St.3d 1, 520 N.E.2d 568, syllabus.
After thoroughly reviewing each of appellant's propositions of law, we find none that has merit, and for the reasons stated below we uphold the appellant's convictions and sentence of death.
As his first proposition of law, the appellant argues that the trial court unreasonably and excessively restricted his questioning during the voir dire.
This court has long held that absent a clear abuse of discretion, no prejudicial error can be assigned to the examination of veniremen. State v. Ellis (1918), 98 Ohio St. 21, 120 N.E. 218, paragraph one of the syllabus; State v. Beuke (1988), 38 Ohio St.3d 29, 39, 526 N.E.2d 274, 285, certiorari denied (1989), 489 U.S. 1071, 109 S.Ct. 1356, 103 L.Ed.2d 823.
Although R.C. 2945.27 affords the prosecution and defense the opportunity to conduct a reasonable examination of prospective jurors, State v. Anderson (1972), 30 Ohio St.2d 66, 59 O.O.2d 85, 282 N.E.2d 568, the trial court reserves the right and responsibility to control the proceedings of a criminal trial pursuant to R.C. 2945.03, and must limit the trial to relevant and material matters with a view toward the expeditious and effective ascertainment of truth. State v. Bridgeman (1977), 51 Ohio App.2d 105, 109-110, 5 O.O.3d 275, 277, 366 N.E.2d 1378, 1383.
After reviewing the entire voir dire in this case, we find that by limiting defense counsel's statements, the trial court was attempting to prohibit counsel from lecturing or making legal arguments to the venire panel. The statements so restricted concerned the nature of circumstantial evidence, a juror's perception of the legal system, the function of the coroner's office, the nature of cross-examination, and the...
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