State v. Keith Edwards
| Decision Date | 07 February 1991 |
| Docket Number | 91-LW-3809,58002 and 59425 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee v. KEITH EDWARDS, Defendant-Appellant CASE NOS. 58002 and 59425 |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
For Plaintiff-Appellee: JOHN T. CORRIGAN, Prosecuting Attorney of Cuyahoga County, EDWARD O. PATTON, Assistant, The Justice Center, 1200 Ontario Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113
For Defendant-Appellant: JOHN B. GIBBONS, 2000 Standard Building 1370 Ontario Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113, KEITH EDWARDS, PRO SE, 211-800 W.C.I., P.O. Box 120, Lebanon, Ohio 45036
Defendant Keith Edwards was indicted [1] in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas case number CR 232945 on five counts, viz: one count of aggravated burglary in violation of R.C. 2911.11 with gun specification; one count of felonious assault in violation of R.C. 2903.11; two counts of aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01 with gun specification; and one count of aggravated murder in violation of R.C. 2903.01 with a felony murder specification.
Defendant pled not guilty and was tried to a jury. The jury found defendant guilty as charged on each count one through four. [2]
The trial court in count five of the indictment granted defendant's motion pursuant to Crim. R. 29 to the charge in specification No. 1, felony murder, that defendant was the principal offender in the commission of the crime of aggravated murder. In count five, the jury found defendant guilty of the lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter with gun specification.
The trial court sentenced defendant to a term of ten to twenty-five years on count one, ten years actual incarceration; eight to fifteen years on count two, eight years actual incarceration; ten to twenty-five years on counts three, four and five, ten years actual incarceration; three years actual incarceration to be served consecutively on the gun specification; all sentences to run concurrently except count two, felonious assault, to run consecutive to counts one, three, four and five. Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal.
The following facts were adduced at trial.
John Lowe, a retired seventy-four-year-old, and his wife Fannie, a victim of Alzheimer's disease, were alone at their residence at 1195 East 125th Street on or about October 15, 1988. Shortly after 8:00 a.m., Mr. Lowe was awakened by a knock on the door of his home. Defendant Keith Edwards, whom John Lowe knew for well over three years arrived at the Lowe home with a young man Lowe had not previously met. [3]
Edwards, who had done various repair work for Lowe and even entertained Lowe socially in his home, was granted entry to the home and apparently showed the young man who accompanied him the dining room ceiling fixture defendant had repaired. After a few minutes both men departed from the Lowe home.
Within the hour Edwards returned with another companion also unknown to Lowe and banged on the side door seeking admittance. Lowe let the two men in and they followed him when he immediately went into his basement to turn off his alarm system. Defendant directed his companion to retrieve a crowbar leaning against the basement wall and bring it upstairs as they both exited the basement following Lowe into the kitchen. Edwards directed Lowe to sit at the kitchen table. When Lowe complied, Edward's companion who was later identified as Jack Brown, began to attack and beat Lowe with the crowbar. During this assault Edwards repeatedly asked Lowe where "is the money," demanded he "shut up," and kept Lowe pinned down in his seat by standing behind him and holding both Lowe's hands on the table. (Tr. 278). At this point, Brown brandished a butcher knife from Lowe's kitchen and threatened to cut Lowe's throat. Lowe told both perpetrators he had money in his pocket. Brown reached into the victim's pants pocket and stole thirty dollars.
The two men again began to beat the victim demanding to know where Lowe kept "the rest of the money." Lowe told them it was upstairs in the attic. Lowe then attempted to flee from his assailants but they apprehended him at the kitchen door and shoved him into the basement so he could not escape. Defendant brought the victim upstairs and again sat him at the kitchen table where the victim was subjected to more beating about the head with the crowbar. (Tr. 282). The victim remembers crying out for his wife and telling his assailants the rest of his money was in the attic. Mr. Lowe saw his wife standing on the landing between the first and second floor in her nightgown. Subsequently, Mr. Lowe fell to the floor as a result of the force of the blows and temporarily lost consciousness.
When Lowe awoke he heard the unknown assailant telling Edwards to come upstairs with him. Mr. Lowe began to get up off the floor and saw his wife collapsed in a heap lying on the second step by the side door breathing heavily. Lowe was unable to lift or drag his wife due to the severe beating and blood loss he sustained so he fled quickly across the street to the home of his neighbor Willie Scullark for help.
Willie Scullark testified he was at the kitchen table at approximately 10:20 a.m. when John Lowe knocked and came right in. Mr. Scullark saw Lowe was bloody and beaten. When Lowe sad they were robbing his house, Scullark called 911. Scullark went out onto his porch and observed defendant, whom he knew as someone who performed work at Lowe's home, carrying a crowbar and putting a TV in the back end of a black car which had Ohio plates bearing the numbers "7-5-4."
Sam Bush testified he was having breakfast with his friend Willie Scullark when Mr. Lowe appeared at the door bleeding and beaten. Bush walked to the Scullark front porch and saw a man carrying a crowbar or jack handle and a television set which he placed In the back seat of a vehicle. Bush described the vehicle as a black or blue Dodge Omni or Horizon with Ohio plates whose numbers were "754." Bush viewed three separate photo arrays and each time was able to identify defendant as the man who carried the crowbar and television set.
Patrolman Hartman testified that upon entering the dwelling he served EMS working on Fannie Lowe who lay at the bottom of the steps. Mr. Lowe told the police officer he was assaulted by two men, one of whom was Keith Edwards.
Fannie Lowe was pronounced dead that morning at Huron Road Hospital at 11:19 a.m. The coroner determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. John Lowe was treated at University Hospital for a head laceration, ecchymotic swollen eyes and multiple trauma and subsequently released to follow up at the V.A. Hospital.
Detective Copeland, who was placed in charge of the investigation, testified defendant's girlfriend Patricia Scott voluntarily came to the station within a day or two of the crime and produced four traffic citations issued to "Norma McEwen." Ms. Scott divulged the fact that McEwen was an associate of Edwards. After checking with people in the area, the police ascertained Edwards was indeed in the area of the McEwen apartment. The police obtained a warrant and arrested defendant Edwards, Jack Brown and Norma McEwen.
The police confiscated a crowbar at the McEwen apartment that Lowe identified at trial as his. (Tr. 821).
Norma McEwen testified she, defendant, Jack Brown, a girl named Cheryl and a man named "Mickey" all stayed in her apartment and throughout the night and early morning of October 15, 1988 drank alcohol and used cocaine.
Defendant, Jack Brown and "Mickey" [4] left the apartment early the morning of October 15, ostensibly to get "some money." McEwen testified both men returned to the apartment about noon the same day, October 15, 1988, with a small dark car, some female jewelry and two television sets. A few days later defendant admitted to McEwen he "might be facing a murder rap." (Tr. 655).
Robert Carl son reported his Plymouth Horizon stolen on Saturday, October 15, 1988, about 10:15 to 10:30 a.m. at the Justice Center; the license plate number was 745-AHB. The car subsequently recovered by the police after it hit a vehicle and the driver abandoned it while being pursued by the police. (Tr. 631). [5]
Edwards testified in his own defense. Edwards asserted he defended the Lowes against the attacks of Jack Brown who held the gun, threatened him and forced him to drive the stolen car. (Tr. 1360). Edwards testified he was held prisoner by Jack Brown until he was subsequently arrested and transported to jail. Edwards asserted duress as a defense.
Defendant's appointed counsel filed seven assignments of error. Defendant filed twelve supplemental assignments of error pro se.
Defendant's first assignment of error lacks merit.
Defendant argues specifically that the prosecutor's remarks made in his opening statements referring to defendant's theft of the Carl son motor vehicle were prejudicial, constituted misconduct and denied defendant due process.
While defendant argues this same statement regarding the car theft was also made during closing arguments by the prosecutor, defendant raised no objection to these remarks on the record, thus waiving any error. State v. Williams (1983), 6 Ohio St. 3d 281, citing State v. Williams (1977), 51 Ohio St. 2d 112.
The Ohio Supreme Court briefly described the general duty of a prosecutor in State v. Smith (1984), 14 Ohio St. 3d 13 at 14 as...
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