State v. Boyd

2015 Ohio 5116
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 10, 2015
Docket14AP-961
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2015 Ohio 5116 (State v. Boyd) 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. Boyd, 2015 Ohio 5116 (Ohio Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Boyd, 2015-Ohio-5116.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

TENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

State of Ohio, :

Plaintiff-Appellee, : No. 14AP-961 (C.P.C. No. 13CR-4830) v. : (REGULAR CALENDAR) Alex Boyd, :

Defendant-Appellant. :

D E C I S I O N

Rendered on December 10, 2015

Ron O'Brien, Prosecuting Attorney, and Steven L. Taylor, for appellee.

Timothy Young, Ohio Public Defender, and Valerie Kunze, for appellant.

APPEAL from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas

BRUNNER, J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Alex Boyd, appeals from a judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, rendered on October 24, 2014, sentencing Boyd to a total of 14 years in prison following a jury verdict finding him guilty of aggravated burglary, rape, kidnapping, and abduction, each with gun specifications. Boyd now appeals arguing that the trial court's instructions were plainly erroneous in that they failed to appropriately instruct the jury on the unanimity requirement. Finding no merit in Boyd's arguments, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY {¶ 2} On September 12, 2013, a Franklin County Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Boyd with aggravated burglary, rape, kidnapping, and abduction, each with firearm specifications. Shortly thereafter, on September 16, 2013, Boyd pled No. 14AP-961 2

not guilty. On April 14, 2014, in a separate action, case No. 14CR-1947, Boyd was charged with possessing a weapon while under disability because of a prior felony offense. Boyd waived a jury in case No. 14CR-1947 on September 22, 2014. Shortly after the start of the jury trial in this case, the trial court joined this case and case No. 14CR-1947 for the purposes of trial. {¶ 3} After holding voir dire on September 22, and the morning of September 23, 2014, the trial court commenced a jury trial on the aggravated burglary, rape, kidnapping, and abduction charges on the afternoon of September 23, 2014. The first two fact witnesses of relevance to our decision were David Garner and Jeremy Landis, both of whom are Columbus Division of Police patrol officers. The two officers testified that they were dispatched to an apartment on Roche Drive on September 3, 2013. Once on the scene, Officer Garner spoke with Boyd (who arrived just seconds after the police did), while Officer Landis spoke with the victim, S.W. Officer Garner reported that Boyd said he and S.W. had argued, but their encounter had not resulted in a physical altercation, that S.W. had no marks on her, and that he had taken a walk around the block to blow off steam. Officer Landis was prevented by Ohio Rules of Evidence disallowing hearsay from testifying about what S.W. told him, but he testified that he saw signs of forced entry. {¶ 4} Detective James Ashenhurst, lead detective on the case, also testified. He also explained that he found signs of forced entry and identified photographs showing a dented and warped door to S.W.'s patio. He recounted how he recovered a Glock 22- handgun stashed beneath some stairs near S.W.'s apartment and expressed the opinion that, owing to a lack of cobwebs and dirt on the weapon, it had not been there long. The Glock 22 was equipped only with a trigger safety to prevent accidental discharge by means other than a trigger pull. However, a trigger pull of only five and one-half pounds would both disengage the safety and fire the weapon. When it was recovered the gun had a live round in the firing chamber. Detective Ashenhurst additionally testified that he looked for and failed to find evidence that Boyd was a resident of a Roche Drive apartment, but he admitted that the apartment as a whole was relatively bare. {¶ 5} The next relevant witness to our review was the victim, S.W. She testified that she and Boyd had been boyfriend and girlfriend at one time, but that on July 4, 2013 she moved without Boyd from Toledo to Columbus. After staying with her aunt until No. 14AP-961 3

approximately the end of July, she moved into an apartment on Roche Drive. Boyd did not live with her and did not have a key to the apartment on Roche Drive, but she sometimes let Boyd visit her, even allowing him to stay overnight. When Boyd stayed the night, he would sometimes bring various items with him and would also sometimes leave those things behind. When the police arrived after the incident, for instance, S.W. testified that Boyd had shoes at her apartment, some bottles of cologne, a few items of clothing, a GPS, an amplifier, and some jewelry. {¶ 6} S.W. testified that the prelude to the incident began with a trip to the grocery store on August 31, 2013. She and Boyd went to the store and stayed until shortly after midnight because, on September 1, S.W.'s food stamp card would become active and groceries could be purchased. S.W. then returned to Roche Drive. Boyd did not come with her. On the evening of September 1, 2013, at around 5:30 p.m., Boyd telephoned S.W. and informed her that he had bought her something at the mall. S.W. joined Boyd at Kay Jewelers in the mall and took possession of a necklace Boyd had bought her, and they left the matching ring to be resized. S.W. returned to Roche Drive without Boyd. {¶ 7} Some interval of time passed after returning from the mall, but while it was still daylight, S.W. looked up from cooking to discover that Boyd had somehow managed to climb onto her elevated back porch and was asking to be let in so they could talk. Initially, she testified that she found it funny that he had somehow managed to climb up onto her porch and that she felt secure in the knowledge that he could not get in since she was in the habit of wedging her door shut with a heavy chair. So she went upstairs and changed clothes. When she came back down to finish cooking, Boyd kicked in the door. {¶ 8} S.W. testified that Boyd fought her inside the apartment, slapped her, choked her to the point of unconsciousness several times, and dragged her upstairs by her hair. Upstairs they fought more. At one point, Boyd pulled out a gun and threatened her with it. After a time, Boyd gave the gun to her and told her to kill him if she wanted to leave; but, S.W. found that she could not bring herself to shoot him. After that, Boyd took the gun back and began stripping off S.W.'s clothes while S.W. attempted to push him off with her legs. When Boyd began to undress himself, S.W. grabbed his genitals hard in an attempt to control him but eventually let go. Whereupon, Boyd again choked her to unconsciousness, put her on the bed, and, when she regained consciousness, removed the No. 14AP-961 4

remainder of her clothing. Boyd then stuck the muzzle of the gun in her vagina. After a time he pulled the gun out, licked it, and began to rape S.W. with his penis. These events took place over what was, to S.W.'s perception, an unknown interval of time during which Boyd would not permit S.W. to leave the room and kept the gun with him, even while sleeping. However, at some juncture S.W. was able to telephone the police. {¶ 9} The final two witnesses were experts. Monica Robinson was a nurse at Riverside Hospital who saw S.W. on September 4, 2013 following the assault and rape. She testified that she noted no injuries on S.W. either internal or external, but that this was not inconsistent with being slapped, choked, and vaginally penetrated a few days prior. Robinson did note a white fluid in S.W.'s vagina which could either have been S.W.'s own fluid or the remnants of another person's fluid. {¶ 10} Raymond Peoples, a DNA analyst for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, also testified. The parties stipulated that DNA from both the hand grip and the barrel of the gun belonged to both Boyd and S.W., and that Boyd's sperm was found in S.W.'s vagina.

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Bluebook (online)
2015 Ohio 5116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-boyd-ohioctapp-2015.