State v. Ojile
| Docket Number | C-230032 |
| Decision Date | 29 November 2023 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UGBE OJILE, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
1
2023-Ohio-4277
STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
UGBE OJILE, Defendant-Appellant.
No. C-230032
Court of Appeals of Ohio, First District, Hamilton
November 29, 2023
Criminal Appeal From: Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Trial No. B-1007149C
Judgment Appealed From Is: Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part, and Cause Remanded
Melissa Powers, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney, and Keith Sauter, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for Plaintiff-Appellee,
The Olawale Law Firm, LLC, and Emmanuel Olawale, for Defendant-Appellant.
OPINION
Bock, Judge.
{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant Ugbe Ojile appeals the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas' judgment denying his Crim.R. 33(A)(6) motion for a new trial on several charges related to Ojile's and his codefendant's participation in a string of robberies targeting casino patrons. In his motion for a new trial, supported by affidavits from his codefendant and a jailhouse informant, as well as a judgment entry of acquittal of one of the robberies charged under a different case number, Ojile now challenges four of his convictions: three for aggravated robbery and one for conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery.
{¶2} Because we hold that the common pleas court erroneously denied Ojile's motion for a new trial with respect to the aggravated robbery of Daniel[1] Duncan, we reverse the court's judgment in part and remand the cause for a new trial on that charge only. We affirm the lower court's judgment in all other respects.
Facts and Procedure
{¶3} Following a 2011 bench trial, the trial court convicted Ojile of multiple counts of aggravated robbery, robbery, complicity to robbery, and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery under two case numbers. At trial, the state submitted evidence demonstrating that Ojile and his codefendant, Kenyatta Erkins, had worked together to target patrons of two gambling casinos. Erkins would enter the casino and look for "targets" who had won large sums of cash while Ojile waited in a car in the parking garage. Once they acquired their targets, Erkins and Ojile would follow them from the casino to their residences and rob them at gunpoint. Amy Hoover, the mother of one of Erkins's children, participated in a few of these robberies.
{¶4} After this court's opinion on direct appeal and on appeal from the denial of Ojile's 2016 postconviction petition, Ojile stood convicted of four counts of aggravated robbery, five counts of complicity, and a single count of conspiracy in the case numbered B-1007149 and one count of robbery in the case numbered B-1006797C. State v. Ojile, 1st Dist. Hamilton Nos. C-110677 and C-100678, 2012-Ohio-6015 ("Ojile I "); State v. Ojile, 1st Dist. Hamilton No. C-160425, 2017-Ohio-9319 ("Ojile II ").
The Trial
{¶5} The state tried Ojile and Erkins together. Hoover accepted a plea deal from the state in exchange for her testimony at their bench trial. She testified that she had only participated in three robberies and, thus, could only provide information as to those crimes. Tyrone Tanks, a jailhouse informant incarcerated with Ojile in the Hamilton County Justice Center, testified at trial that Ojile had confessed his involvement in several of the robberies for which he had been charged. Relevant to this appeal are Ojile's convictions related to the 2010 aggravated robberies of Michael Weisbrod, Daniel Duncan, Tien Dao, and Kiran Racheria.
Michael Weisbrod
{¶6} Weisbrod was robbed twice. Because Ojile argues that his acquittal of Weisbrod's first robbery impacts his motion for a new trial related to the second robbery, we discuss both.
Weisbrod's first robbery
{¶7} Ojile, Erkins, and Hoover were charged with robbing Weisbrod in February 2009. At trial, Weisbrod testified that he had left a casino on February 9, 2009, with more than $8,000 in cash and returned to his apartment in the early
morning hours of February 10. Video from the casino's security camera showed Erkins following Weisbrod that night.
{¶8} After Weisbrod had returned home, a woman knocked on his door and asked him if anyone was living in the apartment downstairs. Weisbrod told her, "No," and she left. On the night of February 10, a man came to Weisbrod's door, asked the same question, and received the same response. Then, Weisbrod testified, on the night of February 11, he was in the basement of his apartment building, checking for the cause of a power outage, when a man and woman confronted him, tied him up, and demanded to know where the money was in his apartment. The robbers left with Weisbrod's car keys, cell phone, and more than $8,000 in cash.
{¶9} Hoover testified at trial that she, Olije, and Erkins had participated in this robbery. Tanks testified that Ojile had provided him with a detailed account of this night and had said that he was not concerned with this charge because he had an airline ticket showing that he was in New York City at the time of the robbery. According to Tanks, Ojile also said that he had never boarded the flight and was going to use that airline ticket to create a false alibi.
{¶10} Ojile, Erkins, and Hoover were convicted of the 2009 robbery. But following postconviction proceedings, Ojile was acquitted of this crime after submitting an affidavit from a United Airlines record custodian attesting that Ojile had boarded the flights to and from New York City.
Weisbrod's second robbery
{¶11} In April 2010, Weisbrod was again robbed of a large sum of money upon his return home from a casino late at night. He testified that two men assaulted him on his front porch. They ordered Weisbrod to his knees and pointed a gun at him. After
taking his money, the attackers drove away in a white SUV. Weisbrod testified that he could see his attackers and had told investigating officers that he would be able to identify them if he saw them again. He explained that the porchlight had been on and the men were not wearing masks.
{¶12} About six months after the April 2010 robbery, police arrested Ojile, Erkins, and Hoover for a string of robberies. After the television news displayed pictures of the three suspects, Weisbrod contacted police to inform them that he recognized Hoover as the woman who had knocked on his door shortly before the February 2009 robbery. Further, during the police investigation and in court, he identified Ojile and Erkins as the two men who had robbed him in April 2010.
{¶13} The trial court convicted Ojile for the April 2010 robbery. Ojile now challenges this conviction in his motion for a new trial.
Daniel Duncan
{¶14} Duncan testified at trial that he was a "professional gambler" and that he had seen Erkins and Ojile together at a casino on several occasions. In April 2010, Duncan left a casino to return home to his apartment in the Oakley neighborhood of Cincinnati. Because he had been robbed before, Duncan was carrying a .40-caliber Glock in his back pocket as well as Smith and Wesson ammunition. After exiting from his car, a person he described as a six-foot man wearing a black hoodie and bandana pointed a gun at his head. Duncan stumbled and his own gun fell out of his back pocket. The single attacker stole Duncan's gun and ammunition and more than $1,200 before driving off in a white car.
{¶15} In October 2010, on the night when Ojile and Erkins were arrested, police searched the backpack located between Ojile's feet on the passenger-side
floorboard of the car that Erkins had been driving. Inside, they recovered Duncan's gun and ammunition as well as some of Ojile's personal papers.
{¶16} The jailhouse informant, Tanks, testified that Ojile had told him about a robbery where he had stolen the victim's gun. Ojile and Erkins were both charged with the aggravated robbery of Duncan. Ojile was convicted of this robbery and Erkins was acquitted. But in 2013, Erkins signed an affidavit attesting that he was solely responsible for Duncan's robbery.
Tien Dao
{¶17} In June 2010, Dao returned home from a casino with winnings totaling $1,500. He parked his car in the driveway and opened his garage door. As he was entering his garage, a man wearing a black shirt and mask and brandishing a gun tried to grab him. A second man also wearing a mask and brandishing a gun arrived. One of the men hit Dao in the head with a gun while he was trying to escape inside his home. The two attackers followed him inside and stole Dao's wallet and fled. Dao had his social security card, a California driver's license, and credit cards in his wallet. Surveillance video showed Erkins following Dao as he left the casino earlier that night. Additionally, Dao's 16-year-old neighbor across the street saw, from his bedroom window, two men attacking Dao in his garage and called the police.
{¶18} Following Ojile's arrest, police officers searched the apartment Ojile shared with his girlfriend and recovered Dao's California driver's license, social security card, and credit cards from the top of a kitchen cabinet. Ojile's girlfriend testified that Ojile often kept his keys and wallet on top of the kitchen cabinet.
{¶19} Tanks testified at trial that Ojile confessed to being involved in the Dao robbery and said that he was going to claim that a police officer named Morgan had planted Dao's personal effects in Ojile's apartment.
{¶20} Ojile, Erkins, and Hoover were all charged with Dao's aggravated robbery. The trial court convicted Ojile and acquitted Erkins. Although she did not testify about this robbery at trial, Hoover entered a guilty plea to this crime and was convicted.
Kiran Racheria[2]
{¶21} In the early morning hours of October 3, 2010, Kiran Racheria returned to his apartment complex in Blue Ash after winning at a casino. He became alarmed when he saw a man emerge from behind a tree. Racheria woke up his friend, who had been sleeping, and the two of them exited from the car. Racheria attempted to call...
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