State v. Riggins
| Decision Date | 14 August 2019 |
| Docket Number | APPEAL NO. C-180069 |
| Citation | 2019 Ohio 3254 |
| Parties | STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DEVARIEH RIGGINS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
Criminal Appeal From: Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas
Judgment Appealed From Is: Affirmed
Joseph T. Deters, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney, and Judith Anton Lapp, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for Plaintiff-Appellee,
Raymond T. Faller, Hamilton County Public Defender, and David Hoffman, Assistant Public Defender, for Defendant-Appellant.
{¶1} In six assignments of error, defendant-appellant Devarieh Riggins appeals his convictions and sentences for aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. For the reasons set forth below, we find no merit to the assignments of error and affirm the judgment of the trial court.
{¶2} Defendant-appellant Devarieh Riggins lived with his mother, Jabina Riggins, and several siblings. He met Coron Smith in 2016 after Riggins was released from prison. Riggins and Smith often rode around together in Jabina's silver minivan. On June 28, 2016, Riggins, Smith, Jabina, and Riggins's brother De'oveon decided to drive around the Winton Terrace community in the minivan looking for people to rob.
{¶3} At approximately 3:30 a.m. on that day, James Tamplin was walking to work in front of the neighborhood recreation center when a silver van approached. Riggins, Smith, and De'oveon got out of the vehicle, and Riggins approached Tamplin. According to Smith's testimony, Riggins ran up to Tamplin and began shooting. Smith, hearing the gunshots, began firing as well. After the victim collapsed, Riggins stood over him and continued to fire until the weapon was empty. Smith later told investigators that Riggins had continued to pull the trigger even after the gun was empty. The group then ran back to the van and fled. Smith asked Riggins what had happened, and Riggins told Smith that it looked like Tamplin was reaching for a weapon. But Smith testified that he had never seen Tamplin with a weapon, and no weapon was later found attributable to Tamplin.
{¶4} Tamplin attempted to walk home as he began to lose blood. He was eventually picked up by a passing motorist, who drove him home.
{¶5} Tamplin's brother Kevin Lackey, came to the door in response to pounding and screaming. Lackey testified that when the door opened, Tamplin yelled his name and collapsed. Tamplin told him that he had been robbed and shot. Lackey asked Tamplin who shot him, and Tamplin responded that it was a "silver van." While this conversation was going on, Tamplin's mother frantically called 911. After speaking to the man who drove Tamplin home, Lackey left the home to go to the area where Tamplin had been shot, leaving Tamplin with other family members. Lackey found the spot in front of the recreation center where the shooting had occurred and followed the trail of blood several blocks to the point where Tamplin had been picked up by the passerby.
{¶6} Cincinnati Police Officer Christopher Loreaux responded to the 911 call. By the time that he arrived, Tamplin was unable to speak and the other members of the family were "pretty frantic." Tamplin was taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery for several hours. Doctors were unable to repair the damage, and Tamplin died from his injures later that day.
{¶7} Detective Tracy Jones from the Cincinnati Police Department led the investigation at the scene. He photographed the blood trail from the recreation center to where Tamplin was picked up. At the scene of the shooting, he found three .22-caliber cartridge casings and three 9 mm casings in the area. Information was also retrieved from a nearby stationary license plate reader. Police retrieved photographs of a silver van and its license plate that passed the area at the time of the shooting. The license plate was traced back to Jabina Riggins. Other cameras in the area recorded images of a silver van coming into and leaving the area at the time of the shooting. Detective Jones also recognized that the van matched the description of a vehicle that had been involved in a different shooting three weeksearlier. Using this information, investigators tied the van to Jabina, and Jabina to Riggins and Smith.
{¶8} Over a week later, police officers stopped a white Pontiac that had been reported stolen. Smith was the driver of the vehicle and Riggins was in the front passenger seat. Police found a .22-caliber handgun on the passenger seat, a second .22-caliber pistol next to the passenger seat, and a .38-caliber handgun on the floor in front of the driver's seat. Police also found a bag of white powder on the floor in front of Riggins's seat. Ammunition for a .22-caliber handgun was found in Riggins's pocket. Both men were arrested and charged with having a weapon while under a disability, improper handling of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, and trafficking in and possession of drugs.
{¶9} Detective Jones subsequently learned of the arrests of Smith and Riggins and arranged for the weapons that were seized to be tested by the crime lab. The guns were tested against the casings found at the scene of the homicide. Detective Kurt Ballman, who had also been assigned to the case, testified that one of the handguns found by Riggins's seat was the same weapon that had fired the .22-caliber rounds that killed Tamplin.
{¶10} While Riggins was being held on the weapon and drug charges that arose from the traffic stop, Ballman met with him at the Hamilton County Justice Center. Ballman told Riggins that he was only there to take a DNA sample for the weapons charges related to the traffic stop.
{¶11} After his visit, Ballman began to listen to calls made by Riggins from the Hamilton County Justice Center, hoping it would spur him to talk about the homicide. Ballman testified that Riggins called his mother after his arrest and that Riggins was "in what I would call a full-blown panic." The first thing that Riggins told her was that "it's over." Riggins told his mother that a holder was going to beput on him in the next couple days and that he needed to get out of jail before that happened. He told his mother that he was "about to do 25" and that "[they] about to put a charge on me." Ballman testified to a series of conversations that Riggins had with others in which he was trying to raise money to make his bail before he was charged with more serious offenses. He wanted to make bail so he could flee the jurisdiction and stay with an aunt in Louisville, Kentucky.
{¶12} Riggins pled guilty to having a weapon while under disability and was sent to prison. Detective Ballman tried to interview him there, but Riggins refused to cooperate. He called his mother, who told him that another "dude" had court that day. From the context of the conversation, it appeared that Jabina was referring to Smith. Riggins said that
{¶13} After a jury trial, Riggins was found guilty of aggravated murder in violation of R.C. 2903.01(B), murder in violation of R.C. 2903.02(A), murder in violation of R.C. 2903.02(B), felonious assault in violation of R.C. 2903.11(A)(1), felonious assault in violation of R.C. 2903.11(A)(2), aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(1), aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(3)—all with one- and three-year gun specifications—and having a weapon while under a disability. He was sentenced to life in prison for the aggravated-murder charge, plus three years for the related gun specification. He further was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the aggravated robbery in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(1), plus three years for the related gun specification. He was also sentenced to three years in prison for having a weapon while under a disability. Riggins was ordered to serve all prison terms consecutively to each other, and was told he would be eligible for parole after 30 years. All of the remaining charges and specifications were merged as alliedoffenses of similar import with those charges and specifications for which he was sentenced. His total sentence was 50 years to life.
{¶14} In six assignments of error, Riggins now appeals. For ease of discussion, we will discuss them out of order.
{¶15} In his first assignment of error, Riggins claims that the trial court abused its discretion when it allowed Detective Ballman to testify to notes he made of calls Riggins made from the Justice Center when the state had failed to preserve the actual jail recordings.
{¶16} Prior to trial, Riggins filed a motion to prohibit Ballman from testifying from his notes as to the contents of the destroyed recordings. During the hearing, Ballman testified that he had listened to several recordings involving calls between Riggins and others. He said that he took notes on all the calls that were relevant to the investigation. He was able to listen to the recordings through an on-line system at his office, but the system did not allow him to record those calls. In order to obtain recordings for trial, the policy was to email the person at the Justice Center in charge of making the recordings. He testified that he contacted Heather Dobbins by email on October 3, 2016, to begin the process of recording the calls. Ballman testified that he went to the Justice Center several times to pick up the recordings, but each time he was told they were not available. He eventually spoke to a supervisor who told him that Dobbins no longer worked for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department.
{¶17} Ballman then spoke to a sergeant there and sent a follow-up email relating to his request for recordings. He received an email back indicating that there were 194 calls from Riggins and 1,900 calls from Coron Smith. He responded to the email with...
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