State v. Konneh

• Decision Date: 30 March 2018
• Docket Number: Court of Appeals No. WD-17-007
• Citation: 2018 Ohio 1239
• Parties: State of Ohio Appellee v. Sherique A. Konneh Appellant
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

2018 Ohio 1239

State of Ohio Appellee v. Sherique A. Konneh Appellant

Court of Appeals No. WD-17-007

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT WOOD COUNTY

March 30, 2018

Trial Court No. 2016 CR 400

DECISION AND JUDGMENT

Paul A. Dobson, Wood County Prosecuting Attorney, and David T. Harold, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Mollie B. Hojnicki-Mathieson, for appellant.

MAYLE, P.J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Sheirque A. Konneh, appeals the January 5, 2017 judgment of the Wood County Court of Common Pleas. For the following reasons, we affirm, in part, and reverse, in part, the trial court judgment.

I. Background

{¶ 2} On August 9, 2016, Ohio State Highway Patrol Sergeant Stacy Arnold and border patrol agents Chris Damshen and Thomas Payne were patrolling a stretch of I-80 in Sergeant Arnold's cruiser. They were parked at the crossover near mile marker 62, in Wood County, Ohio, when they observed a Kia Optima traveling noticeably below the speed limit in the middle lane of traffic. After the vehicle passed, Sergeant Arnold exited the crossover to further observe the driver's behavior and to run a registration check of the license plate.

{¶ 3} Sergeant Arnold noticed that the driver was sitting at a straight 90-degree angle while his seat was slightly reclined. His hands were at the 10:00 and 2:00 position on the steering wheel, his elbows were locked straight, and his eyes remained fixed on the road in front of him, never turning to look in her direction. Initially, there did not appear to be a passenger in the vehicle, but as Sergeant Arnold drove up alongside the vehicle, she observed that the seat was reclined and the passenger was in the lying-down position.

{¶ 4} As the officers continued to observe the vehicle, it drifted into the far right lane, over the dotted divider line, then back into the middle lane without the driver activating his turn signal. Sergeant Arnold initiated a traffic stop.

{¶ 5} Sergeant Arnold exited her vehicle and waved for the driver to do the same. They approached one another and Sergeant Arnold asked for his license. He presented her with a Pennsylvania license bearing the name Sheirque Konneh, but the driver did notresemble the photograph on the license. She asked the driver twice if the license, in fact, was his, and he insisted that it was. Sergeant Arnold then approached the passenger side of the vehicle. She observed a strong odor of cologne emanating from the vehicle and saw a cologne bottle on the passenger's lap. Agent Damshen told her that he saw the passenger spray the cologne.

{¶ 6} Sergeant Arnold ultimately learned that the passenger was Sheirque Konneh. The driver was Francois Beauvogui. Konneh gave Beauvogui the license to present to the officer because Beauvogui's license was suspended. Sergeant Arnold also learned that the Kia Optima was a rental vehicle. The paperwork showed that the rental expired on July 28, 2016, but Konneh said that he had extended the rental. Beauvogui was not listed as an additional driver on the rental agreement.

{¶ 7} Shortly after initiating the stop, Sergeant Arnold and the two border control agents were joined by Trooper Ryan Stewart and his K-9, Oso. They had just completed a traffic stop a couple of miles back. Trooper Stewart stopped to make sure that everything was okay. Sergeant Arnold requested that he walk Oso around the vehicle. Konneh was asked to exit the vehicle, and when he did so, he inadvertently popped the trunk open. Sergeant Arnold observed what appeared to be the type of container that would hold antifreeze or weed killer, completely encased in gray duct tape. She closed the trunk.

{¶ 8} The K-9 circled the vehicle and alerted to the rear corner of the vehicle. Sergeant Arnold observed what appeared to be marijuana residue on the floorboard. She pulled the vehicle further off the side of the road so that a probable cause search could be conducted.

{¶ 9} Both the interior and the trunk of the vehicle were searched. Four-hundred and fifty dollars was found in the driver's side door. Numerous items were found in the trunk, including black dye; rubber bands; rubber gloves; cotton balls; chlorine tablets; hospital masks; paper towels; glass vials with liquid in them; tape; dryer sheets; air freshener; a white, powdery substance; a box cutter; a black light; aluminum foil; Elmer's glue; a roll of saran wrap; envelopes; gray duct tape; clear packing tape; trash bags; and iodine. There were also pieces of black paper and pieces of white paper cut into the size of U.S. currency; plain white paper; and a bundle of currency-sized, black paper wrapped in saran wrap. One of the pieces of white, currency-sized paper was found in a book; the remainder was found in an envelope. In all, more than 18 pounds of black currency-sized paper were found in the vehicle.

{¶ 10} The duct-tape-wrapped jug that Sergeant Arnold saw when Konneh inadvertently popped the trunk was more closely examined. In fact, it was two jugs taped together. The top of the second jug was cut off and the bottom was taped directly beneath the first jug. With the duct tape encasing both of them, it created what appeared to be one long jug with two bottoms. The jug smelled of bleach and chlorine.

{¶ 11} The cash found in the driver's side door included four $100 bills. The security strips on the bills were green; they should have been blue. In addition to that, it was discovered that by shining a black light on the white paper found in the vehicle, a perfect imprint of a $100 bill appeared.

{¶ 12} The officers were not sure what to make of what they had found, but they suspected a currency-related crime. Trooper Stewart contacted the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for investigating currency-related crimes, and spoke to Agent Steve Snyder. He and his supervisor, Scott Anderson, met them at the Bowling Green station.

{¶ 13} Konneh contended during questioning that the black paper was used to wash black jeans that had faded. But the Secret Service suspected that Konneh was involved in a scheme known as a "black money scam." The scam was described by Special Agent Snyder:

[In a black money scam, the perpetrators] are looking for victims who are naïve in a way, usually elderly or people who are maybe looking for that quick cash. And so they come up with this money and they try to convince the person, either through email or through a phone call, that they have a large amount of this money that had to be colored to get it through the customs process here in the United States. But, they want to show them the money so they usually meet up with the victim and show them that theyhave a special chemical that they can use to get the black off the money—quote money—and it can then be used and they will give them a share of that.

The scam usually goes that they will show a little bit of the chemical, show maybe one or two bills, either through slight [sic] of hand or changing it out and actually produce a real genuine bill that then was purported to be washed or cleaned with that chemical. They are asking the victim, "I need two thousand dollars or four thousand dollars to get more of this chemical so we can wash all of the money and that money can be yours.["]

Agent Snyder explained that the jug is used as a prop in this scheme as a container for mixing chemicals.

{¶ 14} Konneh was charged on August 10, 2016, with forgery, a violation of R.C. 2913.31(A)(3) and (C)(1)(b), and possessing criminal tools, a violation of R.C. 2923.24(A). A preliminary hearing took place in the Perrysburg Municipal Court, and the court found probable cause as to the possession-of-criminal-tools charge, but not as to the forgery charge. The case was bound over to the Wood County Court of Common Pleas and presented to the grand jury.

{¶ 15} On September 8, 2016, Konneh was indicted on one count of forgery, a fifth-degree felony, in Wood County case No. 2016 CR 0400. He entered a plea of not guilty and executed a speedy trial waiver on September 23, 2016. On October 20, 2016, he was indicted on one count of possessing criminal tools, also a fifth-degree felony, inWood County case No. 2016 CR 0514. Konneh entered a plea of not guilty on November 2, 2016. Over his objection, the trial court granted the state's motion to join the two cases.

{¶ 16} The case was tried to a jury on November 14, 2016, and Konneh was convicted of both counts. The court sentenced Konneh to a jail term of 180 days on each count, to be served concurrently. Konneh timely appealed and assigns the following errors for our review:

First Assignment of Error: The Trial Court Erred When It Denied Appellant's Motion to Suppress.

Second Assignment of Error: The Trial Court Erred When It Denied Appellant's Motion to Dismiss the Possession of Criminal Tools Charge.

Third Assignment of Error: The Trial Court Erred By Allowing Improper Evidence Before the Jury.

Fourth Assignment of Error: The Offenses Appellant Was Convicted of Were Allied Offenses of Similar Import and Subject to Merger.

Fifth Assignment of Error: The Evidence at Appellant's Trial Was Insufficient to Support the Convictions, and appellant's Convictions Are Against the Manifest Weight of the Evidence.

II. Law and Analysis

{¶ 17} Konneh argues that the trial court erred when it denied his motion to suppress evidence arising from the August 9, 2016 traffic stop and the questioning thatoccurred during that stop. He claims that the state failed to timely bring him to trial on the possession-of-criminal-tools charge, thus the charge should have been dismissed. He contends that the trial court erred by failing to exclude allegedly prejudicial photographs depicting a Qur'an and a prayer mat. He maintains that his possession-of-criminal-tools and forgery convictions should have merged. And he insists that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions and that his convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence.

{¶ 18} Before addressing...