State v. Froman
| Decision Date | 24 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 2017-0938,2017-0938 |
| Citation | 165 N.E.3d 1198,162 Ohio St.3d 435 |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. FROMAN, Appellant. |
David P. Fornshell, Warren County Prosecuting Attorney, and Kirsten A. Brandt, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.
Timothy J. McKenna and Roger W. Kirk, Cincinnati, for appellant.
Jeffrey M. Gamso, Cleveland, and Noelle A. Powell, urging reversal for amicus curiae, Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
O'Connor, C.J. {¶ 1} Appellant, Terry Lee Froman, appeals as of right his aggravated-murder conviction and accompanying death sentence. A Warren County jury found Froman guilty of the aggravated murder of Kimberly Thomas and of two death-penalty specifications: committing aggravated murder as part of a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of two or more persons (Thomas and her son, Michael Eli Mohney ("Eli")), R.C. 2929.04(A)(5) ; and committing aggravated murder during the commission of a kidnapping, R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). The jury recommended a sentence of death. The Warren County Court of Common Pleas accepted that recommendation and sentenced Froman accordingly.
{¶ 2} We affirm Froman's judgment of conviction and death sentence.
I. TRIAL EVIDENCE
A. Thomas's relationship with Froman
{¶ 3} Evidence introduced at trial indicated that Froman and Thomas had dated for approximately four years. Froman lived with Thomas and her 17-year-old son, Eli, in Mayfield, Kentucky. Thomas, a nurse, paid the rent and other bills.
{¶ 4} On the evening of August 20, 2014, Thomas ended her relationship with Froman and asked him to move out. Until Froman had moved out, Thomas and Eli stayed with Thomas's father.
{¶ 5} On the morning of August 21, Froman went to Thomas's workplace at Mills Health and Rehab Center, a nursing home. Thomas's coworker, Mary Elizabeth Munsell, became alarmed when she saw Froman in Thomas's office, because she knew that Thomas and Froman had a troubled relationship that Thomas had ended. Thomas's supervisor knocked on Thomas's office door and informed Thomas that she was needed at a meeting. Before leaving, Froman told Thomas's supervisor, "Kim has made me lose everything, now I will make her lose everything no matter the cost." Froman then left the facility.
{¶ 6} Froman moved out of Thomas's house over the Labor Day weekend. After Froman had moved out, he twice texted Thomas's next-door neighbor, Kurt Stafford, and asked Stafford if any men had been at Thomas's house. Stafford responded "no" to the first text message, and regarding the second text message, he said that he did not want to be involved.
B. Gunshots heard near Thomas's home
{¶ 7} Around 5:00 a.m. on September 12, Stafford woke up after he heard gunshots. He then heard another gunshot. His wife did not hear the gunshots and told him to go back to sleep. Around 6:00 a.m., Stafford went outside but he did not notice anything out of the ordinary.
C. Abduction at the gas station
{¶ 8} Just after 7:00 a.m. on September 12, a 9-1-1 caller reported that a woman had been abducted at a gas station in Paducah, Kentucky. Surveillance video from the gas station showed Froman inside the gas station's store and his vehicle, a white GMC Yukon with an Illinois license plate with the number "TRICKE1," parked at a fuel pump. The vehicle was registered to Froman. The video showed a naked woman, later identified as Thomas, exit the vehicle and start running away. Froman rushed out of the store, grabbed Thomas by the hair, and pushed her into the back seat of the vehicle. Froman then drove away.
D. Eli's body found at Thomas's house
{¶ 9} Police started looking for Froman following the abduction at the gas station. They contacted Mills Health and Rehab Center on September 12 and learned that Thomas had not been scheduled to work that day. One of Thomas's coworkers texted Thomas and asked her to "call me now, I need you now." A little before 10:00 a.m., Munsell received a text from Thomas's number stating, "I'll call you in a minute."
{¶ 10} Munsell and two of her colleagues then drove to Thomas's house. They saw Thomas's and Eli's cars in the driveway. They knocked on the doors and a window and noticed what they thought was a smudge of blood on the front door's glass. Munsell then opened the unlocked front door, stepped inside, and saw Eli's body on the floor. Munsell could tell that he was dead; she then called 9-1-1.
{¶ 11} Police arrived at Thomas's house and found Eli lying on his back on the living room floor. Glass fragments from a shattered table lay on the floor, and there was blood spatter on the floor and walls. Eli had sustained bullet wounds
to the back of his head, his abdomen, and his right forearm. Police recovered a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson shell casing and an unfired .40-caliber Smith & Wesson round next to his body.
E. Froman flees to Ohio
{¶ 12} After obtaining Froman's phone number, police contacted Froman's cell-phone provider and asked the provider to "ping" Froman's cell phone to determine Froman's location. Police used the "ping" information that it received in response to track Froman's location as he headed to Ohio.
F. Froman's phone conversations with David Clark
{¶ 13} David Clark was a good friend of Froman and knew Thomas and Eli. Around 4:45 a.m. on September 12, Clark received five or six phone calls from Froman, but he did not answer them. Clark testified that when he called Froman back, Froman said that he According to Clark, Froman did not immediately say who he had killed. But Froman said that he had "done it with [Froman's] gun, so it was going to come back to him." Froman later told Clark that he had killed Eli. Froman said that he was "a couple of hours away," but he would not disclose his location.
{¶ 14} Clark drove to another friend's home and encountered Froman's daughter, Alexis Froman ("Alexis"). Alexis was attempting to call her father. Clark called Froman on his phone, and Alexis talked with Froman. She was crying and asked Froman to "let Kim go."
{¶ 15} After hearing that conversation, Clark, who was a police informant, called his point of contact, Officer Jason Montgomery, at the Paducah Police Department. Montgomery and Clark met in person about ten minutes later and then went to the Paducah police station together.
{¶ 16} Montgomery took Clark to an interview room. Clark had several phone conversations with Froman on speakerphone; the conversations were videotaped. During the calls, Froman explained what had happened earlier that morning when he shot Eli:
{¶ 17} Froman told Clark that Thomas was totally undressed and sleeping "off and on" on the back-seat area of the vehicle. Clark implored Froman to surrender himself to the police and to free Thomas without harming her:
G. Froman kills Thomas
{¶ 18} During a later phone call, Froman told Clark that the police were following him. Froman repeated that he intended to kill Thomas:
{¶ 19} The call was then disconnected. A short time later, Clark called Froman again. Froman answered the phone and said, He added, "I shot myself, and I shot her three times."
H. The highway patrol arrests Froman and finds Thomas's body in the back seat of his vehicle
{¶ 20} Around 1:00 p.m. on September 12, the Ohio State Highway Patrol ("OSHP") received a message to be on the lookout for a Kentucky murder suspect driving northbound on I-75 in a white GMC Yukon with an Illinois license plate with the number "TRICKE1." Troopers Nathan Stanfield and Christopher Creech spotted Froman's vehicle and pulled it over. Creech and Stanfield exited their cruisers and then heard two gunshots.
{¶ 21} A short time later, two tactical teams approached Froman's vehicle and apprehended Froman, who was sitting in the driver's seat with a gun in his hand. Froman had a bullet wound
in his left upper chest near his shoulder. He was transported to a hospital for treatment.
{¶ 22} The troopers found Thomas's dead body in the back seat of Froman's vehicle. Thomas had suffered four bullet wounds
.
I. Evidence found inside Froman's vehicle
{¶ 23} An evidence technician with the OSHP recovered from Froman's vehicle a Hi-Point .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol containing a magazine with four rounds of ammunition in it and a live round jammed in the firearm. Six spent shell casings, three intact projectiles, two live rounds, and a bullet jacket were recovered from inside the vehicle.
J. Forensic testing
{¶ 24} Matthew White, a firearms examiner with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, examined the gun found in Froman's vehicle, determined that it was operable, and concluded that the spent shell casings recovered from the vehicle had been fired by that gun. White also determined that the spent shell casing found near Eli's body had been fired by the same gun. White compared test...
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