State v. Lee A. Mardis

• Decision Date: 19 August 1999
• Docket Number: 99-LW-3462,98AP-1059
• Parties: State of Ohio, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lee A. Mardis, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

State of Ohio, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lee A. Mardis, Defendant-Appellant

No. 98AP-1059

99-LW-3462 (10th)

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Tenth District Franklin.

August 19, 1999

ON APPEAL from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

Ron O'Brien, Prosecuting Attorney, and Amy H. Kulesa, for appellee.

Philip L. Allen, for appellant.

OPINION

BROWN J.

Lee A Mardis, appellant, appeals a July 23, 1998 judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas finding appellant guilty of aggravated murder, in violation of R.C. 2903.01 and finding that he used a firearm in the commission of the offense.

On August 30, 1997, appellant, who was fifteen years old, was arrested for the fatal shooting of William B. Stiert, who sustained a gunshot wound to the head during the early morning hours of the same date. The prosecution filed a motion in the Juvenile Branch of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations, seeking an order from the juvenile court relinquishing jurisdiction of the case to the general division for criminal prosecution of the teenager as an adult. The court ultimately granted the state's motion, transferring the case to the general division pursuant to an order journalized November 12, 1997.

Appellant was subsequently indicted by a Franklin County Grand Jury on January 9, 1998, charged with one count of aggravated murder based upon the theory that he purposely, and with prior calculation and design, caused Stiert's death. The charge also carried a firearm specification. At trial, there was essentially no dispute that appellant fired the gun which killed Stiert. Because appellant ultimately testified that the shooting was accidental, the issue was his intent or lack thereof.

On July 17, 1998, a jury found appellant guilty of aggravated murder, and found that he used a firearm in the commission of the offense. For the aggravated murder conviction, the court sentenced him to serve a term of imprisonment of twenty years to life. The court also ordered that appellant serve an additional consecutive term of three years for the firearm specification. The trial court journalized its judgment and sentence pursuant to an entry filed July 23, 1998.

Appellant has timely appealed, assigning the following three errors for our consideration:

APPELLANT'S FIRST ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR:

[THE] TRIAL COURT ERRED AS A MATTER [OF] LAW OR ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN DENYING DEFENDANT-APPELLANT'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE.

APPELLANT'S SECOND ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR:

[THE] TRIAL COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW OR ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN DENYING DEFENDANT-APPELLANT'S MOTION IN LIMINE ALLOWING TESTIMONY REGARDING PRIOR BAD ACTS.

APPELLANT'S THIRD ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR:

[THE] TRIAL COURT ERRED AS A MATTER [OF] LAW OR ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN NOT GRANTING A JUDGMENT OF ACQUITTAL PURSUANT TO CRIMINAL RULE 29 FOR THE JURY VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE MANIFEST WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.

To facilitate an understanding of the facts, we will first address appellant's third assignment of error. In his third assignment of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his Crim.R. 29 motion because "the jury verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence." Specifically, this argument raises two separate issues: Crim.R. 29(A) addresses the sufficiency of the evidence; a manifest weight argument requires a slightly different analysis. "The legal concepts of sufficiency of the evidence and weight of the evidence are both quantitatively and qualitatively different." State v. Thompkins (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 380, paragraph two of the syllabus. In Thompkins, the court explained the distinctions at length:

With respect to sufficiency of the evidence, '"sufficiency' is a term of art meaning that legal standard which is applied to determine whether the case may go to the jury or whether the evidence is legally sufficient to support the jury verdict as a matter of law." Black's Law Dictionary (6 Ed.1990) 1433. See, also, Crim.R. 29(A) (motion for judgment of acquittal can be granted by the trial court if the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction). In essence, sufficiency is a test of adequacy. Whether the evidence is legally sufficient to sustain a verdict is a question of law. State v. Robinson (1955), 162 Ohio St. 486 ***. In addition, a conviction based on legally insufficient evidence constitutes a denial of due process. Tibbs v. Florida (1982), 457 U.S. 31, 45, *** citing Jackson v. Virginia (1979), 443 U.S. 307 ***.

Although a court of appeals may determine that a judgment of a trial court is sustained by sufficient evidence, that court may nevertheless conclude that the judgment is against the weight of the evidence. Robinson, supra, 162 Ohio St. at 487 ***. Weight of the evidence concerns "the inclination of the greater amount of credible evidence, offered in a trial, to support one side of the issue rather than the other. It indicates clearly to the jury that the party having the burden of proof will be entitled to their verdict, if, on weighing the evidence in their minds, they shall find the greater amount of credible evidence sustains the issue which is to be established before them. Weight is not a question of mathematics, but depends on its effect in inducing belief." (Emphasis added.) Black's, supra, at 1594.

When a court of appeals reverses a judgment of a trial court on the basis that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence, the appellate court sits as a '"thirteenth juror"' and disagrees with the factfinder's resolution of the conflicting testimony. Tibbs, 457 U.S. at 42 ***. See, also, State v. Martin (1983), 20 Ohio App.3d 172, 175 *** ("The court, reviewing the entire record, weighs the evidence and all reasonable inferences, considers the credibility of witnesses and determines whether in resolving conflicts in the evidence, the jury clearly lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be reversed and a new trial ordered. The discretionary power to grant a new trial should be exercised only in the exceptional case in which the evidence weighs heavily against the conviction.").

Id. at 386-387.

For appellant to be convicted of aggravated murder pursuant to R.C. 2903.01, the state was required to prove that appellant both "purposely" and with "prior calculation and design" caused the death of Stiert. R.C. 2903.01(A). A person acts "purposely" when "it is his specific intention to cause a certain result." R.C. 2901.22(A). If a person causes the death of another "purposely," and not with "prior calculation and design," the offense is murder. R.C. 2903.02.

In the present case, the state presented the following evidence to support its theory that appellant committed aggravated murder. Officer Steven Warrick of the Columbus Division of Police testified that when he arrived at the homicide scene at approximately 4:50 a.m, he first spoke with a "distraught" woman, Karen Lucas, who was sitting on the porch. Lucas described the suspect as a black male, five feet five inches tall and one hundred sixty pounds, and who was known to her as "Lee." Although she provided a description of the suspect, Officer Warrick concluded that Lucas did not witness the shooting. Lucas also told him that there were four males downstairs at the time of the shooting.

Officer Warrick stated that he found Stiert that morning inside the house sitting upright in a chair with a cigar in his mouth. Officer Warrick also testified that "[t]here was blood all over his body. *** He appeared to be dead at that time." The officer stated that he found a handgun on a couch near where Stiert was seated.

Sergeant Larry Yates, a homicide detective, testified that at approximately 7:30 a.m., several hours after the shooting, he went to the home of appellant's mother, and ultimately found appellant hiding under a pile of clothes in an upstairs bedroom closet. Appellant was arrested and taken into custody for questioning. Appellant's mother went to the police headquarters to be with her son during questioning.

Detective William Snyder, a member of the Crime Scene Search Unit, testified that only one bullet had been fired from the .38-caliber revolver found on the couch, and five unspent bullets remained in the gun. The detective opined that Stiert was shot at close range and that the shooter was within three feet of the victim.

Shelly Slocum was the only witness called by the state who was at the scene at the time of the shooting. She testified that she became acquainted with appellant when he started selling "crack" cocaine to her approximately one year before the homicide. According to Slocum, appellant sold drugs out of the house where a woman named "Karen" (later identified as Karen Lucas) lived. Slocum eventually moved into that house because she had "no other place to go" since she was wanted by police on an escape charge and another warrant for a probation violation on a separate felony. She also stayed there "because of the drugs."

Slocum testified that on the Friday evening preceding the Saturday morning shooting, she arrived at the house at about 8:00 p.m. When she arrived, Karen, "a girl named Nicki," and appellant were there, and "like four or five other people that was purchasing stuff" were leaving. Slocum left to go to the store to get something for Nicki to eat. When she returned, Lee, Nicki, Karen and "Pinball Bill" (the decedent) were there.

When asked if appellant was selling drugs when she returned to the house, Slocum responded:

He closed it down. *** When I got back, he said I had to leave because he was closing the house down. Basically, he was % the impression I took was that him an[d] Nicki was spending the night together, and he was not

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