State v. Jefferies
| Citation | 2019 Ohio 1469 |
| Decision Date | 19 April 2019 |
| Docket Number | Appellate Case No. 27942 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO Plaintiff-Appellee v. TEVON L. JEFFERIES Defendant-Appellant |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals (Ohio) |
(Criminal Appeal from Municipal Court)
OPINIONAMY B. MUSTO, Atty. Reg. No. 0071514, Assistant City of Dayton Prosecutor, 335 West Third Street, Room 390, Dayton, Ohio 45402 Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellee
BENJAMIN W. ELLIS, Atty. Reg. No. 0092449, 805-H Patterson Road, Dayton, Ohio 45419 Attorney for Defendant-Appellant
{¶ 1} This matter is before the Court on the March 12, 2018 Notice of Appeal of Tevon L. Jefferies. Jefferies appeals from his February 28, 2018 conviction in Dayton Municipal Court, following a bench trial, on one count of sexual imposition, in violation of R.C. 2907.06(A)(1), a misdemeanor of the third degree.1 The court sentenced Jefferies to 60 days in jail, all of which was suspended. He was ordered to complete two years of basic supervision, and he was designated a Tier I sex offender. The court ordered Jefferies to have no contact with the victim herein and to stay off the premises where the offense occurred. The court ordered Jefferies's sentence to be served consecutively with the sentence imposed in Dayton M.C. No. 2017 CRB 336. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
{¶ 2} Jefferies was charged by complaint on January 17, 2018, and he pled not guilty on that date. On January 22, 2018, Jefferies filed a request for a competency and sanity evaluation and filed a plea of not guilty/not guilty by reason of insanity. On January 24, 2018, the court ordered competency and sanity evaluations. A status conference was held on February 15, 2018, and at that time the prosecutor indicated to the court that Jefferies had been evaluated and was found to be competent. The State offered to stipulate to the competency report, but the evaluation is not part of the record on appeal. The court found Jefferies to be competent and set the matter for trial.
{¶ 3} On February 20, 2018, at the start of trial, defense counsel moved the court to exclude evidence of Jefferies's prior 2017 conviction in Case No. 2017 CRB 336. In that case, Jefferies was convicted of telephone harassment, a misdemeanor of the first degree, involving the same victim, L.H. Defense counsel argued that Case No. 2017 CRB 336 was not relevant, that its probative value was substantially outweighed by itsprejudicial effect, and that it was "remote in time." The State argued that Jefferies "sent sexual[ly] explicit pictures to the victim in this case and made sexual suggestions to her [in] the previous matter so I think it is relevant to show his intention * * * here." The court overruled defense counsel's motion.
{¶ 4} L.H. then testified that, on January 16, 2018, she encountered Jefferies in the stairway of her apartment building after she returned home from work. L.H. testified that she lived on the third floor of the building, and that Jefferies lived on the second floor of the same building. L.H. stated that Jefferies was "sitting on the stairs on the second floor going toward my apartment," and that he was "leaning against the wall away from the railing."
{¶ 5} The following exchange occurred:
{¶ 6} L.H. testified that she called her girlfriend, telling her that she (L.H.) had been "assaulted" and could not get into her apartment. L.H. told her friend that she (L.H.) would be at a neighbor's house until the friend arrived, because she did not "want to go upstairs at all" until the friend got there and did not feel comfortable. L.H. testified that, when her girlfriend arrived, L.H. told her to call the police "because he touched me" and because L.H. was "too scared and nervous" to do it. L.H.'s girlfriend walked L.H. up to the third floor apartment. L.H. testified that Jefferies remained in the same location on the stairs at that time; L.H. did not speak to Jefferies, but Jefferies claimed not to have touched L.H., called her "crazy," and said "all kind of awkward stuff" as the women went up the stairs. When L.H. was asked to define "awkward stuff," she responded, "[l]ike basically you are a liar and whores." L.H. testified that police officers arrived, and that she was "nervous and shaking." She stated that after speaking to an officer about the incident, he left to speak to Jefferies, and she closed the door to her apartment. L.H. denied that Jefferies's conduct could have been accidental, According to L.H., Jefferies "had to basically lean over to touch me."
{¶ 7} A.G., L.H.'s girlfriend, testified that she received a phone call from L.H. on January 16, 2018, and that L.H. was "loud" in the course of the phone call, which "means she's angry." A.G. testified that L.H. told her that Jefferies had touched her; he "rubbed his finger under her butt when she was going up the stairs." A.G. testified that when she arrived at L.H.'s residence, L.H. was downstairs at a neighbor's apartment and, as the women proceeded up the stairs, Jefferies "was sitting in the hallway on the stairs." A.G. "told him to keep his F'N hands off of her."
{¶ 8} Dayton Police Officer Angela Woody testified that, on January 16, 2018, she and her partner, Officer Zachary Fehrman, were dispatched to L.H.'s apartment on a sexual assault complaint. She stated that they entered the building through the front door and immediately heard a male's voice "yelling or talking loudly"; as the officers went up the stairs, they saw Jefferies "seated on the top of the stairs and kind of on the platform between the second and third level." Woody stated that, when they got to the platform on the second level, they "could distinctly hear him chanting squeeze or a grope - and I apologize for my language - a squeeze or a g** d*** grope." When asked how many times he chanted, Woody responded, "[i]t was kind of a continuous chant while we were there."
{¶ 9} Woody stated that she approached Jefferies while Fehrman proceeded to L.H.'s apartment. Woody did not say anything to Jefferies about the officers' purpose in being there. She stated that she "just stood with him until we had further information to determine if we had a crime or not." Woody testified that Jefferies continued his chanting "and then kind of out of the blue he said I need a g** d*** cigarette and he got up and ran down the stairs to apartment C," leaving the door open. Officer Fehrman joined Woody and informed her that they would be arresting Jefferies, so the officers "called him out" of the apartment and Woody handcuffed him.
{¶ 10} As Woody and Fehrman walked Jefferies in their cruiser, he "continued to make the same chant." They informed Jefferies that he was under arrest for sexual imposition. Woody stated that she tried to read Jefferies his Miranda warnings, but he did not acknowledge that he understood them so, so she did not ask him any questions at that time; they just sat in the cruiser together and Jefferies "continued to talk and he continued to chant the squeeze and a g** d*** grope." According to Woody, Jefferies "referred a lot to [L.H.] being a bad b****." Jefferies asked Woody if she (L.H.) "fe[lt] all of [his] fingers or my palm," but Woody did not engage in conversation with him about it. On cross-examination, Woody testified that, while in the cruiser, Jefferies stated that L.H. likely struck the railing as she walked by him on the stairs; Jefferies did not admit to purposely touching L.H.
{¶ 11} Officer Fehrman testified that he responded to L.H.'s apartment building with Woody on January 16, 2018, and that they heard "a male voice, agitated" when they entered the building. He stated that Jefferies was "sitting on the stairs and he was kind of leaning against the wall and just kind of angrily muttering about squeezing and groping * * *." Fehrman proceeded past Jefferies to L.H.'s apartment, where it "was obvious that she was upset." Fehrman testified that L.H. "said that she had gone upstairs and that the Defendant had touched her buttox [sic] as she passed him on the stairway." According to Fehrman, L.H. "demonstrated by - she was standing and she took her finger and ran it across her buttox [sic] and said that he had touched her like that." Fehrman testified that he then heard "some kind of commotion," so her went back out to his partner, and they secured Jefferies and put him in the cruiser. Fehrman then went back to continue his conversation with L.H. Fehrman stated that, when they secured Jefferies, he was "more agitated and he kept saying the difference between a squeeze and a g** d*** grope."
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