State v. Montgomery
| Decision Date | 24 August 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 2012–1212.,2012–1212. |
| Citation | 2016 Ohio 5487,148 Ohio St.3d 347,71 N.E.3d 180 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. MONTGOMERY, Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Ronald J. O'Brien, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, and Steven L. Taylor, Chief Counsel, Appellate Division, for appellee.
Timothy Young, Ohio Public Defender, Kathryn L. Sandford, Supervisor, Death Penalty Division, and Shawn P. Welch and Lisa M. Lagos, Assistant Public Defenders, for appellant.
{¶ 1} On Thanksgiving Day 2010, appellant, Caron Montgomery, murdered his former girlfriend, Tia Hendricks; their two-year-old son, Tyron Hendricks; and Tia's nine-year-old daughter, Tahlia Hendricks. Montgomery entered a guilty plea to charges of murder, domestic violence, and aggravated murder with capital specifications. In 2012, a three-judge panel unanimously sentenced him to death for the aggravated murders of Tyron and Tahlia and to 15 years to life in prison for Tia's murder.
{¶ 2} We now review Montgomery's direct appeal of right and, for the following reasons, affirm his convictions and sentence of death.
{¶ 3} Following Montgomery's arrest on November 27, 2010, appellee, the state of Ohio, charged him with two counts of aggravated murder with respect to each child: one for prior calculation and design under R.C. 2903.01(A) (Counts 2 and 4) and one for murder of a person under the age of 13 under R.C. 2903.01(C) (Counts 3 and 5). All four aggravated-murder counts included capital specifications for course of conduct (R.C. 2929.04(A)(5) ) and for murder of a child younger than 13 years old (R.C. 2929.04(A)(9) ). Counts 2 and 3, pertaining to Tahlia's murder, included a third capital specification for murder to escape detection, apprehension, trial, or punishment for another offense (R.C. 2929.04(A)(3) ). The state also charged Montgomery with one count of murder under R.C. 2903.02(A) and one count of domestic violence under R.C. 2919.25(A) with respect to Tia Hendricks.
{¶ 4} Montgomery waived a jury trial and pleaded guilty to the indictment on May 7, 2012. The three-judge panel then held a plea hearing as required by R.C. 2945.06. The state presented the following evidence through its sole witness, Detective Dana Croom, a Columbus homicide detective and the lead detective in the investigation.
{¶ 5} On Thanksgiving morning, Columbus police received a 9-1-1 call from a female caller. Croom testified at the plea hearing that the dispatcher "could hear [the female caller] yelling, ‘Caron, Caron.’ " Police traced the call to Tia Hendricks's phone, and the dispatcher triangulated the call to 470 Rosslyn Avenue in Sharon Township. Croom explained that the Rosslyn Avenue address was "less than a hundred yards" from the apartment building where Tia resided, 465 Broadmeadows. However, officers were unable to locate the exact apartment from which the 9-1-1 call came.
{¶ 6} According to Croom, Tia's family contacted police on the day after Thanksgiving after becoming concerned that she and her children had not shown up for Thanksgiving dinner. Tia's coworkers were also concerned that she had not reported to work on Friday.
{¶ 7} Columbus police went to Tia's apartment. Although Croom was not one of the responding officers, he testified that police found no signs of forced entry. In fact, the door to Tia's apartment was locked from the inside with a chain lock, which officers cut with a bolt cutter. The chain part of the lock and the inside doorknob were smeared with what appeared to be blood. Officers discovered the bodies of Tia, Tahlia, and Tyron on the living-room floor. All three were pronounced dead at the scene. According to Croom, a police lieutenant who checked the condition of the bodies described them as "cold," meaning that "they had been dead for a while."
{¶ 8} Tia was lying on her back, arms outstretched, with her head and upper torso covered by an article of clothing. Her blue jeans were undone and pulled slightly down, exposing her underwear, and there were several credit and identification cards and an unopened condom package askew on the floor near her head. Tahlia and Tyron were lying face up near the couch, their heads each covered with a blood-stained pillow.
{¶ 9} Officers discovered Montgomery alive and lying on the bed in the master bedroom. He appeared to be injured. Officers could not tell the extent of his injuries, but could see "a little bit of blood." Croom testified that Montgomery was treated for superficial injuries to his neck
, arms, hands, and the top of his head. Croom did not personally observe Montgomery's injuries, but he testified that the lieutenant who did opined that the injuries to his neck were "fresh."
{¶ 10} Croom testified that the police "had people who said that [Montgomery] had lived in [Tia's] apartment." And Tia's mother, Deborah Hendricks, told Croom that Tia and Montgomery had "argued a lot" during their off-and-on relationship. The state also introduced a Franklin County Municipal Court complaint charging Montgomery with domestic violence and assault against Tia and the related judgment entry indicating that in 2009, he had pleaded guilty to and was convicted of the domestic-violence charge.
{¶ 11} Croom also testified about the autopsies conducted by Franklin County Deputy Coroner Dr. Tae L. An on November 27 and 28, 2010. Tia's autopsy revealed 23 stab wounds
to her neck, left flank, back, left shoulder, and right forearm. As described in the autopsy report, Dr. An concluded that Tia's death was caused by two stab wounds in particular, one that lacerated the left common carotid artery and one that lacerated the right internal jugular vein. In addition, Dr. An located more than 20 cutting wounds to the upper portion of Tia's body and found that these wounds contributed to her death. At the plea hearing, Croom opined that the wounds to Tia's hands and arms are "[c]ommonly referred to as defensive wounds."
{¶ 12} Tahlia's autopsy revealed five stab wounds
around her neck and nine cutting wounds to her chin, right shoulder, and right arm that Croom identified defensive wounds. The autopsy report indicated that stab wounds to the front of her neck severed the left and right common carotid arteries and the left internal jugular vein and caused her death.
and that the wound to Tyron's neck was actually created by two separate injuries.
{¶ 14} Officers from the crime-scene unit photographed and documented the scene in the apartment and collected evidence. From the master bedroom, officers collected the knife that fell out of Montgomery's neck, a bleach bottle that appeared to have blood on it, and a pair of men's pants with apparent blood stains. The knife was over 12 inches long, the blade accounting for just over half the total length, and it was bloody and bent. Subsequent DNA testing confirmed that the blood present on the knife, the bleach bottle, and the pants collected from the bedroom matched Montgomery. Croom opined that the presence of Montgomery's blood on the knife blade indicated that he had injured his hands when they slipped down the blade while he was stabbing and cutting the victims.
{¶ 15} Croom testified that crime-scene-unit officers also observed near the entrance to the apartment a pair of men's shoes that appeared to have blood on them. They also noted a bloody shoeprint nearby. Officers collected a blood swab from the top of a space heater found near the entrance to Tahlia's bedroom and a blood swab from the hallway wall just outside her bedroom. Results of DNA testing done on both blood swabs indicated that they were a match to Tia's DNA profile.
{¶ 16} Officers also collected evidence from Tia's car, which was found in a parking lot in front of a different building in the apartment complex. Family members told police that Tia usually parked her car near her own building. During a canvass of the area, officers spoke to a female witness, identified only as "Ms. Battle," who told them that on Thanksgiving evening, she saw a black male exit the vehicle and proceed "southbound and then westbound behind her apartment, which was 425 Broadmeadows." Battle was unable to identify Montgomery as the person she saw get out of the car. Blood swabs collected from the steering wheel and gear shift knob of Tia's car matched Montgomery's DNA profile.
{¶ 17} On May 8, 2012, the panel returned guilty verdicts as to all counts and specifications in the indictment. The panel proceeded immediately to hold a mitigation hearing, at which the state reintroduced its evidence from the plea hearing. Montgomery presented seven witnesses and made an unsworn statement.
{¶ 18} Following the mitigation hearing, the panel merged the two aggravated-murder convictions regarding Tahlia (Counts 2 and 3), merged the two aggravated-murder convictions regarding Tyron (Counts 4 and 5), and merged the domestic-violence conviction (Count 6) with the murder conviction regarding Tia (Count 1).
{¶ 19} As to both aggravated-murder convictions, the panel determined that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors beyond a reasonable doubt and sentenced Montgomery to death. The panel further ordered Montgomery to serve a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for Tia's murder.
{¶ 20} Montgomery now appeals his convictions and sentences, raising seven propositions of law. For clarity, we address Montgomery's propositions out of order.
{¶ 21} In proposition...
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