Evans v. McGuffey

2025 Ohio 5205
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 19, 2025
DocketC-250475
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 5205 (Evans v. McGuffey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evans v. McGuffey, 2025 Ohio 5205 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as Evans v. McGuffey, 2025-Ohio-5205.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO

EL-HAJJ EVANS, : CASE NO. C-250475

Petitioner, :

vs. : JUDGMENT ENTRY

CHARMAINE MCGUFFEY, : HAMILTON COUNTY SHERIFF, : Respondent. :

This cause was heard upon the petition for a writ of habeas corpus, the response, and the evidence filed by the parties. For the reasons set forth in the Opinion filed this date, the petition for a writ of habeas corpus is granted. The court orders that the petitioner be admitted to bail upon signing a recognizance in the amount of $750,000, to be secured by a surety bond, a bond secured by real estate or securities as allowed by law, or a deposit of cash equal to the full amount owed. As conditions of the recognizance, the petitioner shall be required to submit to an electronic monitoring device (“EMD”) and Juris Monitoring during the period of any pretrial release. Further, the court orders that costs be taxed under Civ.R. 54(D). The court further orders that the clerk serve notice of the judgment upon all parties as required by Civ.R. 58(B).

To the clerk: Enter upon the journal of the court on 11/19/2025 per order of the court.

By:_______________________ Administrative Judge [Cite as Evans v. McGuffey, 2025-Ohio-5205.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO

vs. : OPINION

CHARMAINE MCGUFFEY, : HAMILTON COUNTY SHERIFF, : Respondent. :

Original Action in Habeas Corpus

Judgment of the Court Is: Writ Granted

Date of Judgment Entry on Appeal: November 19, 2025

Arenstein & Gallagher and William R. Gallagher, for Petitioner,

Connie Pillich, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney, and John D. Hill, Jr., Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for Respondent. OHIO FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS

CROUSE, Judge.

{¶1} This is an original action for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner El-Hajj

Evans is currently detained without bail pending his trial pursuant to an order from

the court of common pleas. Evans contends that, after his bail-denial hearing and

appeal, he obtained evidence that the State’s primary witness at his hearing, a law-

enforcement officer, made false statements of fact while on the stand. The trial court,

however, denied Evans’s motion to reopen his bail-denial hearing. He now petitions

this court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that his continued detention without

bail deprives him of his liberty without due process of law.

{¶2} After reviewing the evidence, we conclude that Evans is entitled to the

writ. Due process prohibits the State from using false testimony to deprive any person

of their liberty. As we explain below, the State employed false testimony at Evans’s no-

bail hearing, and that false testimony could have altered the trial court’s

determinations that Evans “pose[d] a substantial risk of serious physical harm” to

others and “that no release conditions [would] reasonably assure the[ir] safety.” See

R.C. 2937.222(B). Evans’s continued detention is therefore unconstitutional. And

because Evans lacks an adequate remedy at law to challenge his unlawful confinement,

we grant his petition, issue a writ of habeas corpus to respondent Hamilton County

Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, and order Evans admitted to bail.

I. BACKGROUND

{¶3} While the legal issues in this case are sharply contested, the facts at the

core of the parties’ procedural and constitutional dispute are largely uncontested.

A. Arrest & Bail-Denial Hearing

{¶4} Evans was involved in an altercation with D.P., which ended when

Evans shot and killed D.P. Evans asserted, both on the day of the killing and in the

3 OHIO FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS

trial court, that he acted in self-defense. He was charged with the murder and his bail

was set at $750,000.1 When Evans moved to reduce his bail, the State moved to hold

him without bail pursuant to R.C. 2937.222. As required by statute, the trial court held

a hearing on the motion to deny bail. The State’s primary witness was Cincinnati Police

Department (“CPD”) Homicide Detective Delicia Grisby.

{¶5} Detective Grisby testified that, around 4:00 a.m. on the morning of June

15, 2024, CPD officers reported to 1130 Wilmont Court, an address in a residential

area of College Hill in Cincinnati. Officers had received “several calls about a large

fight, and then a call . . . about a shooting.” CPD officers located D.P., already dead, on

the floor of the living room in 1130 Wilmont Court. When Detective Grisby arrived,

she saw eight to nine shell casings and a trail of blood that led from the street to 1130’s

living room.

{¶6} Detective Grisby and other officers spoke with witnesses on the scene to

try and ascertain who had shot D.P. Their “investigation revealed that Elhajj Evans,”

who was not on the scene at the time, “was the shooter.”2 Detective Grisby testified

that “it was described by several witnesses on both sides of the incident, from Elhajj

Evans’s party and also [D.P.]’s party, that Elhajj Evans arrived there in a silver SUV,”

of which he was the driver; that Evans “drove into the street pretty quickly” at a “pretty

fast pace”; and that this “started the chain of events that led to the homicide.” “It was

reported,” Detective Grisby testified, “that upon Elhajj Evans’s arrival, he immediately

got out of the vehicle, and there was a series of fights between his self [sic] and [D.P.]

that started almost immediate [sic].” The two apparently engaged in a series of

1 The case number of the relevant proceeding against Evans in the Hamilton County Court of

Common Pleas is No. B-2403059. 2 The transcript of proceedings consistently spells Evans’s first name as “Elhajj,” rather than “El-

Hajj,” as Evans spells it in his brief. We have preserved the spelling as it appears in the transcript.

4 OHIO FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS

fistfights, but they were repeatedly separated by onlookers.

{¶7} Detective Grisby said that witnesses “described that you could see the

butt of a gun sticking out of [Evans’s] pocket upon his arrival.” She also testified that,

in a video recording of part of the encounter, D.P. can be heard telling Evans to “[p]ut

the gun away.” (The State has not made this video part of the record in either this

proceeding or the bail-denial proceedings before the court of common pleas.) No part

of the recording apparently showed the gun in Evans’s hands. According to Detective

Grisby, as Evans approaches D.P. and D.P. tells him to put the gun away, Evans’s

hands can be seen “balled up” in fists, not clutching a weapon. Detective Grisby could

not recall if she had seen a gun in Evans’s waistband or pocket on the video.

{¶8} When asked by the prosecuting attorney whether it was “ever alleged

that our victim [D.P.] had a weapon, a gun, at any time,” Detective Grisby responded,

“No, it was not.”

{¶9} Detective Grisby also testified that “[b]ased on [CPD’s] investigation,

[D.P.] obtained [a] crowbar because Mr. Elhajj Evans was armed with a firearm.”

However, “someone reported that they took the crowbar” from D.P. “and threw it”

prior to the shooting.

{¶10} According to Detective Grisby’s recollection of the witness’s statements,

when a “third round of fighting ceased,” D.P. began spitting on Evans and yelling

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2025 Ohio 5205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-mcguffey-ohioctapp-2025.