State v. Bobo

585 N.E.2d 429, 65 Ohio App. 3d 685, 1989 Ohio App. LEXIS 4976
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 18, 1989
DocketNo. 56335.
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 585 N.E.2d 429 (State v. Bobo) 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
State v. Bobo, 585 N.E.2d 429, 65 Ohio App. 3d 685, 1989 Ohio App. LEXIS 4976 (Ohio Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

Ann McManamon, Chief Justice.

Defendant Karlos Bobo timely appeals his conviction for aggravated murder (R.C. 2903.01) with a firearm specification (R.C. 2929.71), raising seven assignments of error. 1 Bobo claims: (1) his confession was coerced and that the *688 trial court erred by twice denying his motion to suppress his statements to police; (2) his waiver of rights was ineffective in the absence of parental guidance; (3) other acts testimony admitted was more prejudicial than probative; and (4) the court abused its discretion by admitting rebuttal testimony regarding other alleged criminal acts. We find none of the assignments of error is well taken and affirm his conviction.

Maurice Dunklin, an erstwhile associate of Bobo, testified for the state. He related that on October 6, 1987, Dunklin, Bobo and William Harris drove to pick up some “short money” — money due them from the sale of cocaine. Bobo carried an aluminum baseball bat and Harris a .44 magnum revolver, but Dunklin went in empty-handed.

King invited the trio into the apartment. A “fat chick,” later identified as Billie Jean Finklin, and Dennis Yarborough were at the kitchen table “getting high.” Yarborough fled after Bobo struck him on the head with the bat.

Next, while Harris held the gun on King, Bobo rapped him on the legs. When Dunklin finally snatched the bat from Bobo, King escaped to the bedroom. Harris, however, kicked in the bedroom door and fired the gun. Dunklin, now in the kitchen, heard glass breaking, followed by a second shot. It was Bobo who carried the gun as the three ran from the apartment. Harris, Bobo and Dunklin drove to a house at East 55th Street and Hawthorne. While Dunklin remained in the car, Bobo went into the house. At that moment, Cleveland police, who were executing a search warrant at the house, seized Bobo.

Melvin King, the victim’s brother, told the court he saw Bobo at the apartment three to four days before the murder with money in his hands and a “rock” of cocaine “behind him.”

Donald Styles, a maintenance man at the Longwood Apartments, found the victim outside the East 35th Street apartment. Styles swore King told him “the guys with Karlos” shot him.

Billie Jean Finklin’s testimony corroborated Dunklin’s, except that she noticed each of the three visitors had a weapon. Finklin stated the trio demanded money and then started to hit King with “sticks.” Billie Jean fled when she heard gunshots.

In defense, Bobo testified that, on the day in question, he asked Harris and Dunklin to drive him to East 79th Street and Kinsman to meet his father. They agreed to take him but told Bobo they first had to stop at an apartment on East 35th Street. Harris and Dunklin went into the apartment while Bobo sat outside on the hood of the car. Bobo heard a gunshot, followed by glass breaking, and then a second gunshot. He saw a man on the ground about *689 twenty-five yards away. Bobo started to run. According to Bobo, he and Mike Townsend later went to the Hawthorne Street house where police arrested them during a drug raid.

In assignments of error one, two and four, Bobo challenges the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress statements he made to the police. He argues that his statements were both involuntary and the product of an illegal detention.

Bobo maintains that the statements he made to police were inadmissible because they were the fruit of an illegal seizure. This contention is incorrect. Although Bobo’s initial detention was a seizure, we find it was lawful. Police arrived at 5801 Hawthorne to execute a search warrant while Bobo was in the house. A search warrant carries with it the limited authority to detain occupants of the premises while a proper search is executed, establishing probable cause to arrest. Michigan v. Summers (1981), 452 U.S. 692, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340. See, also, State v. Schultz (1985), 23 Ohio App.3d 130, 23 OBR 242, 491 N.E.2d 735. In Summers, supra, police stopped the defendant on the front porch. As we have noted, police seized Bobo inside the house. After executing the search warrant, police arrested Bobo, Mike Townsend and several others on drug charges. Thus, unlike the defendant in Dunaway v. New York (1979), 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824, upon which Bobo relies, Bobo was legally detained.

Bobo, a seventeen-and-one-half-year-old juvenile when arrested, urges that his statements to the police, which implicated him in King’s death, were involuntary. He maintains that his remarks were coerced because police held him for twelve hours, with one hand cuffed to a chair, in the narcotics unit, without food, sleep, or the presence of his parents.

The state bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence both the voluntariness of a defendant’s custodial statements and waiver of Miranda rights. Colorado v. Connelly (1986), 479 U.S. 157, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473; State v. Hill (1987), 37 Ohio App.3d 10, 523 N.E.2d 885. See, also, Nix v. Williams (1984), 467 U.S. 431, 444, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 2509, 81 L.Ed.2d 377, 388, fn. 5.

We must examine the totality of the circumstances in order to determine whether there has been a waiver of the right to remain silent and to have the assistance of counsel, even where interrogation of a juvenile is involved. Fare v. Michael C. (1979), 442 U.S. 707, 99 S.Ct. 2560, 61 L.Ed.2d 197; State v. Davis (1978), 56 Ohio St.2d 51, 10 O.O.3d 87, 381 N.E.2d 641; State v. Carder (1966), 9 Ohio St.2d 1, 38 O.O.2d 1, 222 N.E.2d 620; State v. Newell (Aug. 8, 1980), Cuyahoga App. No. 41391, unreported.

*690 Bobo first argues that the presence of a parent is not only a circumstance we must consider, but an additional right accorded to juveniles. Though the greatest care must be taken to assure a juvenile’s admissions are voluntary, parental presence is not constitutionally mandated. See In re Gault (1967), 387 U.S. 1, 55, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 1458, 18 L.Ed.2d 527, 561.

We note that, in some jurisdictions, parental consultation is a prerequisite to the admission of a juvenile’s statement. See, e.g., People v. Saiz (Colo.1980), 620 P.2d 15; Lewis v. State (1972), 259 Ind.

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Bluebook (online)
585 N.E.2d 429, 65 Ohio App. 3d 685, 1989 Ohio App. LEXIS 4976, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bobo-ohioctapp-1989.