State v. Obermiller
| Decision Date | 20 April 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 2011–0857.,2011–0857. |
| Citation | 2016 Ohio 1594,147 Ohio St.3d 175,63 N.E.3d 93 |
| Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. OBERMILLER, Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Sherri Bevan Walsh, Summit County Prosecuting Attorney, and Richard S. Kasay, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, special prosecuting attorneys, for appellee.
Timothy Young, Ohio Public Defender, Kathryn L. Sandford, Supervisor, Death Penalty Division, and Randall L. Porter and Shawn P. Welch, Assistant Public Defenders, for appellant.
{¶ 1} This is an appeal as of right from two aggravated-murder convictions and death sentences. In 2011, Denny Obermiller pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of his grandmother, Candace Schneider, and the murder of her husband, Donald Schneider. A three-judge panel unanimously sentenced Obermiller to death for the aggravated murders and to more than 32 years in prison for his noncapital convictions.
{¶ 2} We affirm his convictions and death sentences.
{¶ 3} Because Obermiller pleaded guilty, the trial court held a hearing before a three-judge panel pursuant to R.C. 2945.06. The state presented 22 witnesses, one additional witness later testified at the panel's request, and the state introduced a large amount of documentary and photographic evidence, which established the following facts.
{¶ 4} Shortly before noon on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, Officer Michael Gazer was dispatched to the Schneiders' house in Maple Heights, Ohio, in response to a theft complaint. Donald and Candace told Gazer that they suspected Obermiller of stealing rare coins from their home.
{¶ 5} Later that day, Candace went to her job at a gas station in Garfield Heights. Candace closed the store around 11:45 p.m. Candace was scheduled to work the next day, August 11, but she did not come in. The manager of the gas station received a telephone call on August 11 from a male who identified himself as Candace's nephew. The caller said that Candace would not be coming to work that day because her husband was in the hospital.
{¶ 6} Candace Flagg, one of the Schneiders' granddaughters, became concerned when her grandmother did not call her on Flagg's birthday, as was her grandmother's custom. On August 13, 2010, after attempting to call the Schneiders many times and getting no answer, Flagg contacted a number of family members in an effort to locate Candace, but they all told her that they had not heard from the Schneiders. When Flagg called Candace Schneider's workplace, she was told that Candace was at a hospital with Donald. Flagg called several area hospitals, but she could not find her grandparents. Flagg also contacted her cousin, Obermiller, who told her that he would try to check on the Schneiders and get back to her. Obermiller did not call her that evening.
{¶ 7} The next day, Flagg called Obermiller again. Obermiller initially told her that he had not yet stopped by the Schneiders' house. But when Flagg said that she was going to ask some friends to check on the Schneiders, Obermiller changed his story and told her that their grandparents were fine and that he had checked on them. After calling several other people, Flagg contacted the Maple Heights Police Department and requested that an officer stop by her grandparents' house. Flagg was subsequently informed that an officer had driven past the house and had seen Donald's van parked in the driveway.
{¶ 8} In the early evening on August 14, 2010, Maple Heights police returned to the Schneiders' house to conduct a welfare check at Flagg's request. After knocking on the front door and ringing the doorbell, officers looked through a partially open window, saw a body lying on the floor, forced their way in through the side door, and smelled a strong odor of natural gas. A candle was burning on the mantle in the living room, and the unlit gas stove in the kitchen had been left on with the burners exposed. One of the officers threw the candle out the door and turned off the gas stove.
{¶ 9} Officers found Candace's body in the first-floor bedroom. She was lying on her back on the floor with her arms above her head and her wrists handcuffed together. A power cord was wrapped around her neck, and a bed sheet partly covered her torso and completely covered her face. Police recovered condom wrappers and two used condoms in the same bedroom.
{¶ 10} Officers found Donald's body on the bed in the second-floor bedroom. He was wearing only underwear and was lying on his right side with his feet at the head of the bed. Donald's hands were handcuffed behind his back, a bed sheet was tied around his face and neck, and a comforter covered most of his body. An investigator noted that the positioning of his body could indicate that a struggle had occurred. A telephone cord had been yanked from the wall in Donald's bedroom and was wrapped around his body.
{¶ 11} Detective Allen Henderson of the Maple Heights Police Department and his partner arrived on the scene soon after a dispatcher notified them of the double homicide. Henderson testified that as they walked through the house, his partner had remembered that a theft complaint had come in from the same residence a few days earlier and that Donald, who had made the report, had suspected that Obermiller was the culprit.
{¶ 12} Investigators noted that the burner caps and grates had been removed from the gas stove in the kitchen. An investigator observed that a television set was missing from above the mantle in the living room, as indicated by a dust outline and hanging cables. Flagg testified at the hearing that her grandparents owned a large, flat-screen television set, which they had mounted above the mantle in the living room.
{¶ 13} Deputy Coroner Jimmie K. Smith, M.D., conducted Candace's autopsy on August 15, 2010. There was mild hemorrhaging of Candace's neck due to the ligature around it, bruising on the back of her left hand and the inside of her left knee, diffuse hemorrhaging in the scalp tissue immediately adjacent to her skull, and an abrasion on her forehead
. Dr. Smith testified that all of the injuries could have occurred during her strangulation, although the bruise on her hand could have been a defensive wound. Dr. Smith opined that the scalp wound was consistent with blunt-force trauma to the head from an object having a flat or rounded surface. Dr. Smith concluded that the cause of death was "asphyxia by cervical compression (ligature strangulation)." Based upon decompositional changes and police reports, he estimated that Candace died approximately four days before he examined her.
{¶ 14} Dr. Smith found no indication of vaginal trauma, but vaginal smears
tested positive for the presence of spermatozoa. Subsequent forensic testing of vaginal swabs, performed by an analyst with the DNA department of the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, confirmed the presence of seminal material containing DNA that matched Obermiller's DNA profile as a major contributor to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. Obermiller also could not be excluded as the source of epithelial cells found in the two used condoms.
{¶ 15} Deputy Medical Examiner Joseph Felo, D.O., conducted Donald's autopsy and concluded that the cause of Donald's death was the same as Candace's: "asphyxia
by cervical compression (ligature strangulation)." Dr. Felo also found a nonfatal sharp-force injury underneath the right side of Donald's jaw, which he classified in the autopsy report as a "stab wound" because it was deeper than it was wide. Dr. Felo opined at the evidentiary hearing that it was also possible that the injury may have been caused by a discharge at close range from a "starter pistol type of handgun" that police had recovered when Obermiller was apprehended.
{¶ 16} On August 15, 2010, one of Obermiller's relatives informed police that Obermiller had contacted him and was driving to the relative's home at Buckeye Lake. Police officers subsequently located Obermiller at a gas station in Licking County and arrested him after a brief foot chase.
{¶ 17} A grand jury indicted Obermiller on seven counts of aggravated murder, three counts of theft, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated robbery, and one count each of rape, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, attempted aggravated arson, and burglary. Many of the noncapital counts included prior-conviction ( R.C. 2929.13(F)(6) ) and repeat-violent-offender ( R.C. 2941.149(A) ) specifications.
{¶ 18} Counts 1 and 4 charged Obermiller with the aggravated murders of Donald and Candace, respectively, with prior calculation and design. Both counts included death-penalty specifications for course of conduct ( R.C. 2929.04(A)(5) ), murder to escape detection ( R.C. 2929.04(A)(3) ), witness murder ( R.C. 2929.04(A)(8) ), and felony murder predicated on aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and aggravated burglary ( R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) ). Count 4 also contained a death-penalty specification for felony murder predicated on rape ( R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) ).
{¶ 19} Counts 2 and 3 charged Obermiller with the felony murder of Donald while committing aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary, respectively. Each count included the same six death-penalty specifications included in Count 1. Counts 5, 6, and 7 charged Obermiller with the felony murder of Candace while committing aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and rape, respectively, and each count included the same seven death-penalty specifications contained in Count 4.
{¶ 20} Obermiller waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to the indictment. The case proceeded to an evidentiary hearing before a three-judge panel. After the evidentiary hearing, the panel found him guilty of all counts and specifications.
{¶ 21} At the start of the mitigation phase, the state requested that the court merge a number of the counts and specifications, and Obermiller waived the presentation of mitigating evidence....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Stapleton, Case No. 19CA7
...affected his substantial rights," i.e., the trial court's error must have affected the outcome of the trial. State v. Obermiller, 147 Ohio St.3d 175, 2016-Ohio-1594, 63 N.E.3d 93, ¶ 62, citing State v. Barnes, 94 Ohio St.3d 21, 27, 2002-Ohio-68, 759 N.E.2d 1240. "We take '[n]otice of plain ......
-
State v. Graham
...9 N.E.3d 930, at ¶ 136-137 ; State v. Dean, 146 Ohio St.3d 106, 2015-Ohio-4347, 54 N.E.3d 80, ¶ 239-241 ; State v. Obermiller , 147 Ohio St.3d 175, 2016-Ohio-1594, 63 N.E.3d 93, ¶ 103-104.{¶ 125} In fact, it would not be prudent for us to establish a rigid set of factors to employ in evalua......
-
State v. Hackett
...to even inform a defendant who seeks to waive counsel about the possibility of appointing standby counsel. State v. Obermiller , 147 Ohio St.3d 175, 2016-Ohio-1594, 63 N.E.3d 93, ¶ 50. Similarly, federal courts that have addressed the issue have uniformly rejected the claim that there is a ......
-
State v. Lawson
...not rebutted the presumption that the court relied only upon the aggravating circumstances it identified." State v. Obermiller , 147 Ohio St.3d 175, 2016-Ohio-1594, 63 N.E.3d 93, ¶ 121.B. Unconsidered or Improperly Discounted Mitigation{¶ 117} Lawson also contends that the panel's sentencin......