State v. Williams

• Decision Date: 27 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 1999-1878.,1999-1878.
• Citation: 793 NE 2d 446,99 Ohio St.3d 439
• Parties: THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. WILLIAMS, APPELLANT.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

99 Ohio St.3d 439

793 NE 2d 446

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

No. 1999-1878.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted April 15, 2003.

Decided August 27, 2003.

Julia R. Bates, Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney, Brenda J. Majdalani and Timothy F. Braun, Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys, for appellee.

Jeffrey M. Gamso and Spiros P. Cocoves, for appellant.

O'CONNOR, J.

{¶ 1} In the early morning of February 18, 1999, defendant-appellant, Robert Williams Jr., entered the home of Velma McDowell, who lived in Apartment 12 at Glendale Terrace, a senior-citizens residential complex in Toledo. Once inside, Williams raped and strangled Velma, who was 88 years old. Then, he stole $300 from her purse. Police apprehended Williams, and a jury convicted him of rape, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and aggravated murder. Following a penalty hearing, the trial court sentenced Williams to death.

{¶ 2} In this appeal, Williams raises 20 propositions of law. Finding none meritorious, we affirm his convictions. We have independently weighed the aggravating circumstances against the mitigating factors and compared Williams's sentence to those imposed in similar cases, as R.C. 2929.05(A) requires. As a result, we affirm defendant's convictions and sentence of death.

{¶ 3} Prosecution evidence. On the evening of February 17, 1999, Troy Presnell and Williams were visiting at the home of Presnell's mother, who lived in Apartment 3 at Glendale Terrace. Williams and Presnell left in order to panhandle, and then they drank and shot pool at a local bar. Presnell paid for the drinks because he thought Williams had no money.

{¶ 4} Around 12:00 a.m., February 18, Williams and Presnell returned to Apartment 3 at Glendale Terrace. Shortly thereafter Williams left again. Wanda Richards, who also lived at Glendale Terrace, saw Williams leave Apartment 3 around 12:00 a.m. When Williams came out, he looked at Richards, who was in a wheelchair, and asked her if she was watching him walk up and down the hall. After Richards replied that she was on her way home, Williams offered to "push her home." Richards declined, stating that she had to go home quickly and call a friend or someone would come looking for her.

{¶ 5} Around 12:20 a.m., Williams came back to Apartment 3 and showed Presnell between $400 and $500, which he shared with Presnell. When he did so, Williams remarked, "This is how you panhandle." The next day, Williams told Presnell that he had bought a car.

{¶ 6} That morning, around 9:00, February 18, Shirley Green, Velma's younger sister, discovered Velma's body in Velma's apartment. She was lying on the bed sideways. Her body was naked, and her legs were spread. Green, the police, and emergency medical personnel initially believed that Velma had died of natural causes. Green noticed that the door to Velma's apartment was locked, which was unusual because Velma normally kept that door unlocked. Velma's purse was in the apartment and had $1,100 in it.

{¶ 7} Later that same morning, Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett, deputy coroner, examined Velma's body, concluded that she was a homicide victim, and notified police. Dr. Scala-Barnett observed bruises on Velma's eye, ear, left cheek, mouth, jaw, wrist, left breast, and foot. Dr. Scala-Barnett found bruises on Velma's vagina, which was filled with blood.

{¶ 8} Dr. Scala-Barnett also found that a cloth had been stuffed into Velma's mouth. Dr. Scala-Barnett noted that one would not voluntarily stuff a rag into one's own mouth. Dr. Scala-Barnett found a human hair on the rag that was later determined to be a "Negroid pubic hair." Velma was a Caucasian. Dr. Scala-Barnett concluded that the rag did not cause Velma to suffocate; instead, she "died of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation." The strangulation marks were consistent with having been caused by a bloodied pair of women's hose found inside the entrance to Velma's apartment.

{¶ 9} When police officers examined Velma's apartment that afternoon, they found no signs of forced entry; however, detectives discovered a latent palm print and a fingerprint identified as Williams's in the hallway and on the molding of the entry door leading into Velma's apartment.

{¶ 10} In Velma's bedroom, forensic technicians found Velma's blood on the carpet beside her bed and on a bed pillow. Technicians found other stains on Velma's bed, on the rug beside the bed, and on a tissue found in the bathroom. These stains fluoresced under alternate lighting, indicating the presence of a bodily fluid, i.e., semen. On the basis of an initial DNA test, an expert concluded that the DNA type found in the semen stains matched Williams's DNA and occurs in one of 90,100 Caucasians, one of 5,680 African-Americans, and 1 of 22,200 Hispanics. Another DNA expert, who conducted more sophisticated DNA tests, testified that the DNA in the semen from Velma's apartment, identical to Williams's DNA, was found in only one of 5.4 quadrillion Caucasians and one of 156 quadrillion African-Americans.

{¶ 11} On the morning of February 22, police went to the home of Williams's ex-wife to question him about Velma's death. When the police car drove up, Williams ran away. Police Sergeant Steve Forrester chased him on foot for 30 minutes. At one point, Forrester drew his weapon and cornered Williams, who responded, "Fuck it, just shoot me." Williams then evaded Forrester, but two uniformed police officers later apprehended him.

{¶ 12} At the police station, police interviewed Williams after advising him of his Miranda rights, and after Williams signed a waiver of those rights. For 30 to 40 minutes, Williams described his activities on February 17 and 18 and denied that he was involved in Velma's death.

{¶ 13} The police paused the interview and took photographs of a cut on Williams's hand, possibly caused by stuffing the rag down Velma's throat. After these photographs were taken, Police Lieutenant Charles Hunt, who had not previously interviewed Williams, questioned Williams. Lt. Hunt told Williams that the police knew that he was guilty, that he was going to be charged with murder, that police had found his fingerprints and semen in Velma's apartment, and that witnesses had seen Williams flashing money that he did not have before. When confronted with these facts, Williams responded, "I told her not to put that rag in her mouth."

{¶ 14} Williams asserted to police that he and Velma voluntarily had sex three or four times over the previous two weeks. Williams claimed that on the night that she died, he stopped by her apartment, and she invited him in and asked him if he wanted to have sex with her. According to Williams, Velma placed the cloth rag over her mouth while they were having sex to muffle her sounds of pleasure and screaming. When Williams noticed that she was gagging, he panicked and left the apartment.

{¶ 15} Then, Lt. Hunt confronted Williams with the fact that Velma had not choked to death but was strangled. In response, Williams stated that he had returned to the apartment and strangled Velma with a pair of pantyhose to make it appear as if a stranger had killed her. Williams continued to deny that he had stuffed the cloth in her mouth. He admitted, however, that he had ejaculated on the floor near her bed and that he had taken $300 from her purse.

{¶ 16} That afternoon, Williams was booked into the Lucas County Jail, where a nurse obtained a blood and a DNA sample from him. While the nurse took the blood sample, Williams "made a couple of statements to himself." Williams stated, "My dick got me in trouble" and "I ought to cut it off." Shortly thereafter, Williams said, "I guess I won't be screwing any more old ladies." At the time, no police officers were questioning Williams. He blurted out these statements on his own volition and to no one in particular.

{¶ 17} Defense evidence. Williams presented testimony from Toledo Detective Vince Mauro, who confirmed that when Velma's body was discovered on the morning of February 18, her sister and the police thought that Velma had died from natural causes. Hence, police did not secure Velma's apartment as a crime scene until after 1:00 p.m. However, Mauro did not believe that the delay in securing the crime scene compromised the investigation.

{¶ 18} Trial result. A grand jury indicted Williams in Count One for aggravated felony-murder with three death penalty specifications charging murder during rape (specification 1), murder during an aggravated robbery (specification 2), and murder during a burglary (specification 3). The grand jury also indicted Williams in Count Two for rape, in Count Three for aggravated burglary, and in Count Four for aggravated robbery. The jury found Williams guilty as charged. Following a penalty hearing, the jury recommended the death penalty. The trial court sentenced Williams to death on Count One and to consecutive prison terms on each remaining count.

{¶ 19} Williams now appeals directly to this court as a matter of right.

Suppression of pretrial confession

{¶ 20} In proposition of law I, Williams argues that the trial court erred in declining to suppress his pretrial confession because police violated his Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights and his rights under Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694. At a pretrial hearing to consider the suppression issues, the following facts were established.

{¶ 21} On February 22, 1999, when police arrested Williams, after a 30-minute chase, he was screaming, cursing, and struggling to get free. At the scene of the arrest, Alan¹ Penamon, an attorney, approached Sgt. Forrester and told him that he was an attorney. Penamon also told Forrester, "I don't want you to take a statement from Williams until I talk with him." Forrester replied that it was up to Williams to invoke his Miranda rights, but police did not question Williams at the scene.

{¶ 22} When police placed Williams in the...