State v. Williams, 95-846

• Decision Date: 21 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-846,95-846
• Parties: The STATE of Ohio, Appellee and Cross-Appellant, v. WILLIAMS, Appellant and Cross-Appellee.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Page 569

74 Ohio St.3d 569

660 N.E.2d 724

The STATE of Ohio, Appellee and Cross-Appellant, v. WILLIAMS, Appellant and Cross-Appellee.

No. 95-846.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted Dec. 12, 1995.

Decided Feb. 21, 1996.

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT

1. Neither the felony-murder statute nor Ohio case law requires the intent to commit a felony to precede the murder in order to find a defendant guilty of a felony-murder specification.

2. Whether a person has a "significant history of prior criminal convictions" under R.C. 2929.04(B)(5) is a question for the jury and is specifically outside the province of expert testimony.

On the evening of August 15, 1988, defendant-appellant Andre R. Williams and Christopher Daniel assaulted and robbed George and Katherine Melnick after forcibly entering their home on Wick Street in Warren, Ohio. Williams beat Mr. and Mrs. Melnick, killing him and leaving her for dead. He also attempted to rape Mrs. Melnick.

Between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on August 15, 1988, a neighbor of the Melnicks heard glass breaking and shortly thereafter heard Mrs. Melnick screaming "Oh, dear God," "Help me," "Please stop," and "No more." The screaming lasted for approximately one hour. No one called the police at that time. Two days later, another neighbor, concerned that she had not seen the Melnicks for two days, contacted the police. The investigating officers entered the Melnick home and found Mrs. Melnick lying under the kitchen table in a pool of her own blood. Though she had been severely beaten, she was alive. The police found Mr. Melnick in a bedroom. He was dead, and according to the police report, had been for some time.

Mrs. Melnick suffered from blunt force injuries including facial fractures. As a result of these injuries, surgeons removed her right eye. Her injuries also caused blindness in her remaining eye and diminished hearing. She has no memory of the attack. Her underpants, which she had been wearing before the attack, were found beside her on the floor. A test for the presence of semen was performed; the results were negative.

An autopsy revealed that Mr. Melnick had been struck at least ten times and that he died as a result of multiple skull fractures and other "multiple and extensive blunt force injuries." Investigators found several items in the house that are believed to have been used in the attack on the Melnicks, including a lamp, a brick, an ax handle, and a piece of concrete block. The investigation revealed that several items were missing from the Melnick home, including a Magnavox VCR and Mrs. Melnick's purse, which had contained approximately $2,000 in $50 bills.

The ensuing police investigation focused on Williams and Daniel. Henry Daniel, Jr., Daniel's brother, and Lisa Tobe, Henry, Jr.'s girlfriend, testified that they saw Williams and Daniel on the night of the murder at the house of Henry Daniel, Sr., Chris Daniel's father. Both appeared "hyper" and spent five to fifteen minutes together in the bathroom. Shortly thereafter, Henry, Jr. saw blood on the bathroom wall and on Williams's hand and Lisa noticed a rust- spot on Daniel's shirt. Williams and Daniel had in their possession a brown gym bag, a VCR, and a "nice amount" of money.

The day after the murder, Williams bought a used car. He paid with nine $50 bills. Williams paid to have the car repainted with four $50 bills. The manager of the auto painting shop, who accepted payment from Williams, described him as so nervous that he needed help counting the money.

Numerous acquaintances (Jennifer Gunther, Lance Owens, Henry Daniel, Jr., Ruben Gunther, and Mario Daniel, Chris Daniel's brother) testified that Williams admitted to and bragged about his involvement in an assault and robbery on an elderly couple on Wick Street. According to the testimony of these witnesses, Williams and Chris Daniel waited outside the couple's home until the woman finished a telephone call, and then broke in. Once inside, Chris hit the woman in the head with a brick while Williams attacked the man with a stick and a lamp. Williams said they got $1,800 (mostly in $50 bills) and a VCR from the robbery. Another witness, Estill Peterman, testified that he overheard an argument between Chris Daniel and Williams about which of them had used the lamp and ax handle to kill the man.

With respect to the attempted rape of Mrs. Melnick, Williams told Lance Owens that just before he left the Melnick house, he was "on top of her" and was "trying to get some." Williams told Henry Daniel, Jr., "I raped the lady" and "I got some butt from the old lady." Ruben Gunther testified that Williams said he "got the butt from her." Mario Daniel heard Williams say he "tried to get some from the lady."

During their investigation, the police found the Melnicks' VCR (it was identified by serial number) in a wooded area less than three-tenths of a mile from Henry Daniel, Sr.'s house. The police also found a brown nylon gym bag containing Mrs. Melnick's purse at the side of a road near Henry Daniel, Sr.'s house. Several hairs found in the purse were tested and compared to hair samples taken from Williams and Chris Daniel. The state's expert testified that one of the hairs was microscopically consistent with Daniel's hair and that another hair was similar to Williams's hair. The defense expert testified that he could not exclude the possibility that some of the hair taken from the purse was from Williams.

When initially interviewed by police, Williams denied involvement in the incident and furnished an alibi. In the course of the interview, Williams asked detectives, "Do you talk with judges?" When a detective asked what he meant, Williams then said, "Would it go easier on me if you talked to one?"

The grand jury indicted Williams on three counts of aggravated felony-murder; each count was based on the separate underlying felonies of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, and rape. Each aggravated murder count alleged three R.C. 2929.04(A)(7) felony-murder death penalty specifications and one R.C. 2929.04(A)(5), "course of conduct" death penalty specification. The grand jury also indicted Williams for attempted aggravated murder (Count Four), aggravated burglary (Count Five), aggravated robbery (Count Six), and rape (Count Seven).

The jury found Williams guilty on each aggravated murder count and guilty on all four death penalty specifications for each count. They also found him guilty of attempted aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted rape. The jury found Williams not guilty of rape.

During the penalty phase, the prosecution moved to dismiss the aggravated murder charges in Counts Two and Three. Thus, only Count One, aggravated murder based on the underlying felony of aggravated burglary, with four capital specifications, was considered during the penalty phase.

During the sentencing phase, Williams presented witnesses who described his history and background. Frank C. Goodman, Director of Student Services in Special Education for Warren City Schools, testified that Williams was born on May 1, 1967, that he was placed in a developmentally handicapped program in the fourth grade, and that he had IQ scores of seventy-six in 1973, seventy-eight in 1978, and sixty-seven in 1983. Goodman also testified that Williams did poorly in school, repeated three grades, and stopped attending school when he was eighteen. According to an assistant principal from the high school Williams attended, Williams was suspended during ninth grade for being in a fight but otherwise had only minor disciplinary infractions.

Emma Eggleston, whose son had grown up with Williams, testified that Williams had "always been a nice, little, young man." Williams's cousin described him as a "kind-hearted, helpful person," with a reputation as "a nice person." Madeline Vail, Williams's grandmother, who raised Williams, also testified. She stated that he was a "good and respectable" child, that he was an only child who never had the aid or assistance of a father, that he never gave her any particular problems with respect to discipline, respect, or control and that he was not violent.

The parties stipulated that Williams had three misdemeanor convictions in his record: assault in February 1987, assault in December 1987, and shoplifting in February 1988.

In an unsworn statement, Williams proclaimed his innocence. He stated that while he had done nothing to Mr. and Mrs. Melnick, he was sorry about what had happened to them. He questioned the propriety of the jury's determining whether he (or any other person) should be put to death, stating, "there's only one person that should judge somebody's life and that's God, the man upstairs."

The jury recommended the death penalty, and the trial court sentenced Williams to the death penalty and prison terms. On appeal, the court of appeals ruled that "the evidence was insufficient to warrant a finding of guilty as to the aggravated murder count which was predicated on the underlying felony of rape/attempted rape," because the state had not proven that Williams intended to rape Mrs. Melnick at the time that he killed Mr. Melnick. The court of appeals also found that the trial judge erred in refusing to allow an attorney to express an opinion, as an expert, on whether Williams's prior criminal record constituted a "significant history of prior criminal convictions" under R.C. 2929.04(B)(5). The court of appeals affirmed the other convictions and the sentence of death with respect to the other three death-penalty specifications.

The cause is now before this court pursuant to an appeal as of right and the state's cross-appeal.

Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County Prosecuting Attorney, and Patrick F. McCarthy, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee and cross-appellant.

Thomas E. Zena and Gary L. Van Brocklin, Youngstown, for appellant and cross-appellee.

WRIGHT, Justice.

We are required by R.C. 2929.05(A)...