State v. Williams
| Decision Date | 03 September 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 1999-1218.,1999-1218. |
| Parties | THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, <I>v.</I> WILLIAMS, APPELLANT. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Once a poll of the jurors has been completed and all have assented to the verdict, a juror may not thereafter rescind or modify his or her vote.
APPEAL from the Court of Common Pleas of Lucas County, No. CR97-2268.
Julia R. Bates, Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney, and Craig T. Pearson, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.
Jeffrey M. Gamso and David L. Doughten, for appellant.
{¶1} Appellant, Shawn C. Williams, was convicted of the rape and aggravated murder of his girlfriend, Catrise Gregory, and of a rape-murder capital specification. After a penalty hearing, the trial court sentenced Williams to death. He appeals from his convictions and death sentence. Although we affirm his convictions, we find that the penalty phase of Williams's trial was affected by reversible error. We therefore reverse the death sentence imposed in this case and remand the cause to the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas for resentencing.
{¶2} In 1995, 17-year-old Catrise Gregory was a student at Bowsher High School in Toledo; she also worked afternoons and weekends at a Taco Bell restaurant. About a year before she was murdered, Catrise began dating appellant, 21-year-old Shawn Williams. By the fall of 1995, Williams was seeing Catrise almost daily.
{¶3} Catrise permitted Williams to keep her car most of the time. He routinely drove Catrise to and from school and work, meanwhile keeping her car all day. Frequently, after driving Catrise home, Williams kept her car overnight.
{¶4} In October 1995, Catrise told her mother that she was pregnant by Williams. She also told some of her friends. Catrise told her friend Sabrina Harris that she and Williams had been trying to conceive a child. According to Harris, Williams knew about Catrise's pregnancy.
{¶5} In November 1995, the relationship between Catrise and Williams began to deteriorate, and on Thanksgiving Day (November 23), 1995, Catrise told a friend that she "was going to break up with [Williams]." Near the same time, she also told her mother that she wanted to end her relationship with Williams.
{¶6} Friday, December 8, 1995, was the last day Catrise was seen alive. That afternoon, she worked from 4:00 until after 9:00 p.m. at Taco Bell, and then she got permission to leave early because she was not feeling well. However, she could not leave right away because Williams had her car. Between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m., Williams finally came to pick up Catrise. Before she left, Catrise told her coworker Antoine Lewis that she intended to break up with Williams.
{¶7} Catrise never made it home on the night of December 8, nor did she report for work as scheduled the next morning.
{¶8} At approximately 8:00 or 9:00 a.m., December 9, a Toledo resident noticed Catrise's car parked on the street in front of his house. The following night, Toledo police officers approached the car in response to a 911 call. They found Catrise's body in the driver's seat, slumped over the steering wheel.
{¶9} Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett, a deputy coroner and forensic pathologist for the Lucas County Coroner's Office, conducted the autopsy and concluded that Catrise had been strangled. Scala-Barnett found bruises on Catrise's nose and ear and "fairly extensive bruising" underneath her upper lip. There were also abrasions on her chin and neck and a laceration on her neck. Scala-Barnett concluded that Catrise's injuries were inflicted between one and six hours before her death. According to Catrise's coworker Antoine Lewis, Catrise had no visible injuries when he saw her last.
{¶10} Scala-Barnett found a bruise on Catrise's labia minora that had also been inflicted between one and six hours before her death. According to Scala-Barnett, such an injury is generally caused by a forceful attempt to penetrate the victim's vagina and "normal sexual activity" would not cause such an injury. After finding that bruise, Scala-Barnett took cervical and vaginal swabs because the injuries indicated a possible sexual assault.
{¶11} Catrise's mother, Antoine Lewis, and Sabrina Harris all attended Catrise's funeral, but none of them saw Williams there. Catrise's friend LaAmora Dawson saw Williams at the funeral but not at the cemetery afterward.
{¶12} On December 14, Toledo Police Detective James Scott located Williams and asked him to come to the police station with him so that a detective could talk to him about Catrise. Williams agreed. When he got into Scott's car, Williams began to cry.
{¶13} At the station, Detective Harold Mosley interviewed Williams. (Scott was also present during most of the interview.) Mosley began by asking Williams whether he knew why Mosley wanted to talk to him. Williams said that he did and said that he was "surprised that [Mosley] hadn't talked to him before." Williams appeared anxious and emotional.
{¶14} Williams told the detectives that he had last seen Catrise on Friday, December 8. He said that he had picked Catrise up at the Taco Bell that night between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. and that she was angry with him because he was late. According to Williams, they went to his mother's house but left because nobody was home. They then went to Williams's grandmother's house and sat outside for about half an hour, talking. When Catrise told Williams that she had to work the next day, Williams went inside the house, and Catrise drove away.
{¶15} Williams told the officers that 10 or 15 minutes after Catrise left, he walked to his cousin's house. After another 10 or 15 minutes, he left his cousin's house with a female acquaintance who gave him a ride to Cherry Street, and he walked to the nearby house of another female acquaintance. After a brief visit, he took a taxi to his brother's house, where he spent the night.
{¶16} Mosley asked Williams whether he had had sex with Catrise at his mother's house. Williams said that he had not and claimed that the last time he had had sex with Catrise was on Tuesday, December 5. Mosley asked Williams whether he had killed Catrise. Williams was visibly upset by the question, but he denied killing Catrise.
{¶17} Semen extracted from the underwear on Catrise's body was subjected to DNA testing and was compared with known DNA samples from Williams. Angela Lineen, supervisor of the DNA laboratory at the Medical College of Ohio ("MCO"), determined that the semen from the underwear contained DNA that was consistent with the DNA sample from Williams.
{¶18} According to Dr. Ming You, also of MCO, Williams's DNA pattern would occur in 1 in 250,000 African-Americans, 1 in 12.4 million Hispanics, and 1 in 33.4 million Caucasians. Moreover, all genetic markers found in the underwear could be attributed to either Catrise or her assailant; there was no evidence that a third party had contributed DNA.
{¶19} Brian Wraxall of the Serological Research Institute, a private consulting laboratory, examined DNA from sperm cells found on the cervical swab taken during the autopsy. The DNA was consistent with Williams's DNA, but a conclusive match could not be made; one-fourth of the general male population could not be excluded as the source.
{¶20} Wraxall also noted that the large quantity of sperm on the swab and the large number of sperm having intact tails indicated that sexual intercourse had taken place within 24 hours before Catrise's death, on a conservative estimate. He explained that bodily functions cause sperm to break down quickly inside the body, but those functions stop when a person dies. Thus, the more sperm and the more sperm with intact tails found after death, the briefer the interval between intercourse and death. According to Wraxall, since Catrise was alive at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, December 8, 1995, the time she left Taco Bell, the sperm could not have been deposited on Tuesday, December 5, which is when Williams claimed to have last had sex with Catrise.
{¶21} Jeffrey Williams, a forensic scientist in the serology DNA analysis unit of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, examined a slide made using the vaginal swab taken during the autopsy of Catrise's body. Like Wraxall, he also found large numbers of sperm with intact tails and concluded that intercourse likely took place no more than 24 hours before death.
{¶22} A two-count indictment was returned against Williams. Count One charged him with aggravated murder while committing rape. R.C. 2903.01(B). Specification One, a death-penalty specification, alleged that Williams committed the aggravated murder while committing rape and that he was the principal offender in the aggravated murder. R.C. 2929.04(A)(7). Count Two charged Williams with rape. R.C. 2907.02(A)(2).
{¶23} The jury found Williams guilty of both counts and of the specification. When the jury returned its guilt-phase verdict, Williams assaulted one of his attorneys. Shortly thereafter, the court adjourned for the weekend. Defense counsel did not visit Williams in jail over the weekend between the guilt and penalty phases, a step they said they would have taken but for the assault.
{¶24} When court reconvened the next Monday, both defense attorneys moved to withdraw from the case. The judge asked each attorney whether he could fulfill his obligation to represent Williams zealously. The attorney who had been assaulted said that he could not. He admitted that he was afraid...
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