State v. Raymond A. Twyford, Iii, 01-LW-1489
| Decision Date | 19 March 2001 |
| Docket Number | 01-LW-1489,98-JE-56 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO, Appellee v. RAYMOND A. TWYFORD, III, Appellant. CASE |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
Criminal Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas Case No. 92-CR-116
HON DONALD R. FORD, P.J., Eleventh Appellate District, sitting by assignment, HON. JUDITH A. CHRISTLEY, J., Eleventh Appellate District, sitting by assignment, HON. ROBERT A. NADER, J Eleventh Appellate District, sitting by assignment.
STEPHEN M. STERN, JEFFERSON COUNTY PROSECUTOR, COSTA D. MASTROS ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR, 16001 State Route 7, Steubenville, OH 43950 (For Appellee)
DAVID H. BODIKER, OHIO PUBLIC DEFENDER, KATHRYN L. SANDFORD, LUZ V. LOPEZ-ORTIZ, ASSISTANT PUBLIC DEFENDERS, 8 East Long Street, 11th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215 (For Appellant)
The instant appeal stems from a final judgment of the Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas. Appellant, Raymond A. Twyford, III, seeks reversal of the trial court's decision granting summary judgment in favor of the state regarding all the claims asserted in appellant's petition for postconviction relief. For the reasons which follow, we affirm the trial court's decision in all respects.
In March 1993, appellant was tried and convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and having a firearm while under a disability. Appellant was then sentenced to death for the aggravated murder. This conviction was predicated upon an incident in which appellant and a second offender lured the victim to an obscure field in Jefferson County and shot him multiple times with a rifle and pistol.
The state's case against appellant was primarily based upon a confession appellant gave to the police shortly after the discovery of the victim's body. In the confession, appellant indicated that, as of September 1992, he was living with his girlfriend and her two minor daughters at the girlfriend's residence in Portage County, Ohio. During this time, appellant had befriended Daniel Eikelberry, who lived in an apartment a short distance from the girlfriend's home. Eikelberry resided with Richard Franks, a mildly retarded individual who was an acquaintance of appellant's girlfriend and her two daughters.
According to appellant, on the evening of September 19, 1992, Eikelberry told him that Franks had allegedly raped the youngest daughter of appellant's girlfriend. After discussing the situation fully, they formulated a plan to kill Franks and dispose of his body. Two days later, appellant and Eikelberry invited Franks to go deer hunting that night. When Franks agreed, the three men drove over one hundred miles to a secluded field by State Route 646 in Jefferson County. Upon arriving at that location, appellant and Eikelberry convinced Franks to walk into the woods and attempt to "spot light" a deer through the use of a flashlight. As Franks was walking into the woods a second time, appellant shot him in the back with a 30.06 caliber rifle. He and Eikelberry then each shot Franks one time in the head.
As part of his confession, appellant further admitted that, after Franks had died, he and Eikelberry agreed to mutilate the body so that it could not be recognized. Besides cutting the hands off the body, they fired a number of additional shots into the victim's head. They then rolled the corpse into a nearby pond and disposed of the hands in a separate location.
Two days following the murder, Franks' body was discovered by a couple walking through the secluded field near the pond. Although appellant and Eikelberry had tried to remove all forms of identification from the body, they overlooked a small calendar book which Franks had kept in the pocket of his inner shirt. In searching the corpse following its discovery, the Jefferson County Sheriff found the book and, accordingly, was able to identify the body. In turn, the sheriff also discovered that Franks had lived in Portage County.
As Eikelberry had been Franks' roommate, he was the first individual interviewed during the subsequent investigation. As part of his statement to the police, Eikelberry implicated appellant in the murder. As a result, appellant was placed under arrest and taken to a local police department in Portage County for questioning. After being held for approximately one hour, appellant gave an oral and written confession concerning the murder to the Jefferson County Sheriff.
Upon being transported back to Jefferson County, appellant was indicted on, inter alia, two counts of aggravated murder under R.C. 2903.01(B). Each of these counts contained a death penalty specification alleging that appellant had committed the murder in conjunction with the commission of a separate underlying felony, and that he either had been the principal offender in the commission of the murder or had committed the murder with prior design and calculation.
As was noted previously, the state's evidence during the guilt phase of the ensuing trial essentially consisted of appellant's confession. In responding to the state's case, appellant did not present any witnesses or evidence in his own behalf. Despite this, appellant's counsel did try to establish a possible motive for the murder. Specifically, during the cross-examination of the Jefferson County Sheriff, counsel elicited testimony that appellant had told the sheriff that he had committed the murder because Franks had raped his girlfriend's youngest daughter. To rebut this, the state presented testimony designed to demonstrate that appellant himself had been engaging in sexual activity with both of his girlfriend's daughters.
After deliberating for less than one day, the jury found appellant guilty of all of the charged counts, including the death-penalty specifications. During the ensuing penalty phase, appellant presented evidence designed to bolster his justification for the murder. In testifying in his own behalf, appellant stated that, in addition to being physically abused by his stepfather as a child, he had been sexually assaulted while he had been incarcerated on minor theft offenses. Appellant further testified that, in light of his own experiences, it was his belief that rapists were never properly punished. Based on this, appellant stated that he felt that Franks would never be punished for raping the child unless he killed Franks.
Appellant also presented the testimony of a psychologist, Dr. Donald Gordon. This expert stated that, as a result of appellant's own difficult childhood, he had a tendency to become attached emotionally to children quickly and to act as their protector against abusive individuals.
Although the state did not present any new evidence during the penalty phase, the jury still returned a recommendation that the death penalty be imposed. In its ensuing sentencing judgment, the trial court independently concluded that the death penalty was warranted because the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating factors in the case.
In his direct appeal from the foregoing conviction, appellant initially asserted only three assignments of error for this court's consideration. In October 1995, we issued an opinion overruling the three assignments and affirming the imposition of the death penalty. However, approximately fifteen months later, we granted appellant's motion to reopen the appeal on the basis that he may have been denied effective assistance of appellate counsel. As a result, appellant was permitted to file a new appellate brief in which he raised twenty-five assignments of error. Nevertheless, after considering the merits of these new assignments, this court concluded that appellant had not been denied effective appellate assistance and again affirmed the imposition of the death penalty. See State v. Twyford (Sept. 25, 1998), Jefferson App. No. 93-J-13, unreported.
Prior to the issuance of our opinion upon reopening, appellant filed with the trial court a petition for postconviction relief under R.C. 2953.21. In this petition, appellant essentially asserted eight claims for relief, the majority of which stated that appellant's conviction should be vacated because he had been denied effective assistance of counsel during his trial. Specifically, under the majority of his claims, appellant argued that his trial counsel had failed to present certain evidence which would have proven additional mitigating factors against the imposition of the death penalty.
In support of his eight claims, appellant attached to his petition multiple affidavits of certain individuals who stated what the substance of their testimony would have been if they had been called to testify. The affiants included Daniel Eikelberry, a different psychologist who had examined appellant, a medical doctor who was an expert on the effect of alcohol intoxication on the human brain, a mitigation specialist, and various members of appellant's family.
In conjunction with the postconviction petition, appellant submitted a motion for discovery for both the Jefferson County Prosecutor's Office and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. In additional to a general request for exculpatory items, appellant stated in his motion that he was especially seeking any information regarding an alleged prior rape which had involved the same daughter who had supposedly been raped by Richard Franks. Upon considering the discovery motion, the trial court denied it on the basis that appellant had not established good cause.
After appellant's petition had been pending for approximately four months, the state moved for summary judgment as to each of the eight claims. In support of its motion, the state did not present any evidential materials which were designed to contradict the materials submitted by appellant; instead, the...
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