State v. Tibbetts

• Decision Date: 05 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 98-1970.,98-1970.
• Citation: 749 NE 2d 226,92 Ohio St.3d 146
• Parties: THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. TIBBETTS, APPELLANT.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

92 Ohio St.3d 146

749 NE 2d 226

THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. TIBBETTS, APPELLANT.

No. 98-1970.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted January 9, 2001.

Decided July 5, 2001.

Michael K. Allen, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney, and Philip R. Cummings, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Faulkner & Tepe, LLP, and A. Norman Aubin; and Bryan R. Perkins, for appellant.

COOK, J.

The appellant, Raymond Tibbetts, was convicted of the aggravated murders of Judith Sue Crawford and Fred Hicks. He was sentenced to death for Hicks's murder and life imprisonment without parole for Crawford's murder. Tibbetts presents fifteen propositions of law for our consideration. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the trial court, including the death sentence.

I

On November 6, 1997, Hicks's sister, Joan Hicks Landwehr, arrived at Hicks's home in Cincinnati to meet him for lunch. Landwehr often visited Hicks, who was sixty-seven years old and suffered from emphysema. Due to his condition, Hicks employed Crawford as a live-in caretaker. Tibbetts, who had married Crawford just over a month earlier, also lived in the house.

After getting no answer at the door and seeing Hicks's car missing from its usual parking space, Landwehr entered the home with her spare key. Landwehr went to a second-floor living room and found Hicks's dead body slumped in a chair. Landwehr immediately called 911. Landwehr noticed that her brother's chest and stomach were bloody and that his right pants pocket, where Hicks usually kept his money, was turned inside out.

When Cincinnati police officers responded a short time later, they found Hicks with a tube still connecting his nose to a nearby oxygen tank. Two knives protruded from Hicks's chest, a third knife protruded from his back, and the broken blade of a fourth knife was also in his back. Officers found additional knives and a knife sheath near Hicks. A butcher block used to store knives lay behind Hicks's chair. Deputy coroner Daniel Schultz later determined that Hicks died as a result of multiple stab wounds to his chest that punctured Hicks's heart, lungs, and aorta. Hicks did not have any defensive wounds.

Officers searched the rest of the house and found Crawford lying dead on the floor of a third-floor room, covered with a sheet. Crawford had been brutally beaten; her head was cracked open and lay in a pool of blood. Pieces of Crawford's brain were lying on the floor next to her head. Crawford had also been stabbed several times, with one knife still stuck in her neck. Crawford also had a broken left arm, which Dr. Schultz characterized as a probable result of her attempt to ward off blows. Police found a bloodstained baseball bat and several knives near Crawford's body. Dr. Schultz concluded that Crawford died of multiple skull fractures and that at least nine of her stab wounds were inflicted after her death. In all, Crawford had been struck at least four times in the head with blunt-force blows and sustained stab wounds to her back, lungs, chest, arm, shoulder, and neck.

Dr. Schultz, who also investigated the crime scene, determined that Hicks and Crawford had been dead for several hours. Police investigators found no identifiable fingerprints on the baseball bat or the knives. The only fingerprints found in the house belonged to either Tibbetts or Crawford. There were no signs of forced entry anywhere in the residence. Police also learned from Landwehr and others at the scene that Hicks's car, a white Geo Metro, was missing. Landwehr told police that Tibbetts did not have permission to drive the car.

The day after discovering the bodies, Cincinnati police learned that a Covington, Kentucky police officer had stopped Tibbetts on the night of the murders. Just after midnight on November 6, 1997, Covington police lieutenant Michael Kraft found Tibbetts in a white Geo Metro that had broken down in the middle of an intersection. According to Kraft, Tibbetts appeared nervous and "smelled somewhat of intoxicants." Tibbetts also lied to Kraft about the car's owner, saying that the car belonged to a friend in Covington.

Kraft summoned another officer to the scene to assist Tibbetts and investigate whether Tibbetts was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Officer David Finan arrived a short time later and also noted that Tibbetts was nervous and smelled of intoxicants. He allowed Tibbetts to go, however, after concluding that Tibbetts was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The car was towed away and impounded by Covington police. Cincinnati police later recovered the Geo Metro from the Covington impoundment lot and found bloodstains on the steering wheel, gearshift, door panel, and brake handle.

After learning of the Covington police's encounter with Tibbetts, Cincinnati police charged Tibbetts with receiving stolen property and obtained an arrest warrant on November 7, 1997. The very next day, Tibbetts voluntarily admitted himself to the psychiatric unit at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Edgewood, Kentucky. Tibbetts told nurses that his name was Ray Harvey and provided an incorrect Social Security number. Despite the false name and identification information, nurses at the psychiatric unit recognized Tibbetts from his previous treatment at the hospital. On the same day that Tibbetts checked into St. Elizabeth, police arrested Tibbetts on the warrant for receiving stolen property and took him to a local jail for questioning.

Tibbetts signed a waiver of his Miranda rights and calmly cooperated with the two investigating officers who questioned him. Tibbetts had a noticeable cut on his hand and told the investigators he had cut his hand on a river barge where he had been staying. When an officer asked whether Tibbetts had seen his wife lately, Tibbetts responded that he had not and then terminated the interview. As police were leaving, Tibbetts queried, "What's the charge, manslaughter?" The investigators, who had not mentioned the murders to Tibbetts during the interview, responded that the matter was under investigation.

A few days later, a Cincinnati police officer retrieved from St. Elizabeth the clothing Tibbetts was wearing when he checked himself into the psychiatric unit and took it to the crime lab for DNA testing. The socks, T-shirt, and blue jeans Tibbetts was wearing on November 8, 1997, were all stained with human blood. A serologist found that the blood on Tibbetts's T-shirt matched Tibbetts's blood, that blood on the socks matched Hicks's blood, and that blood on the blue jeans matched blood from Tibbetts, Crawford, and an unknown person. The serologist also analyzed blood found in the Geo Metro and concluded that blood on the door, brake handle, and gearshift matched Tibbetts's blood.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Tibbetts on four counts of aggravated murder (two counts per victim) with death-penalty specifications. The first and third counts alleged aggravated murder with prior calculation and design. R.C. 2903.01(A). The second and fourth counts charged aggravated murder in the course of committing aggravated robbery. R.C. 2903.01(B). Each count carried two death-penalty specifications: (1) a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of two or more persons, R.C. 2929.04(A)(5); and (2) murder while the principal offender in an aggravated robbery, R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). A fifth count in the indictment charged Tibbetts with aggravated robbery in connection with the theft of Hicks's car. R.C. 2911.01(A)(3).

A jury returned guilty verdicts on three counts of aggravated murder. On these counts, the jury also found Tibbetts guilty of each death-penalty specification. The jury found Tibbetts not guilty on count one, the aggravated murder of Crawford with prior calculation and design, but found him guilty of the lesser included offense of murder. R.C. 2903.02. The jury also returned a guilty verdict on the aggravated-robbery count. The trial court merged the murder verdicts into two counts for purposes of sentencing.

At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury recommended that Tibbetts be sentenced to death for the Hicks murder and to life imprisonment without parole for the Crawford murder. The trial court adopted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Tibbetts accordingly. The cause is now before this court upon an appeal of right.

II

Tibbetts presents fifteen propositions of law for our consideration. Although a capital defendant has an appeal of right to this court, R.C. 2929.05 does not require us to discuss in opinion form each proposition of law raised. State v. Davis (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 107, 110, 666 N.E.2d 1099, 1104. We summarily overrule those propositions of law that have previously been resolved by this court and address only those issues that warrant discussion.¹ Id. See, also, State v. Poindexter (1988), 36 Ohio St.3d 1, 3, 520 N.E.2d 568, 570.

III

In his first, third, and fourth propositions of law, Tibbetts attacks the trial court's alleged failure to provide adequate funds and expert assistance necessary for his defense. Although the trial court provided funds for a mitigation specialist, clinical psychologist, and forensic psychiatrist, Tibbetts contends that he needed more funds to retain additional experts. We reject these claims.

As a matter of due process, an indigent defendant in a capital case is entitled to the basic tools with which to conduct an adequate defense. Ake v. Oklahoma (1985), 470 U.S. 68, 77, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 1093, 84 L.Ed.2d 53, 62. In Ake, the United States Supreme Court concluded that the state must provide a psychiatric expert for the defense when the defendant has made a preliminary showing that his sanity will be a significant factor at trial. Id. at 74, 105 S.Ct. at 1091, 84 L.Ed.2d at 60. Although Ake dealt only with a defendant's entitlement to a psychiatric expert, this court has recognized that due process may require the state to provide other types of...