State v. Boyd

2025 Ohio 984
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 21, 2025
Docket30098
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2025 Ohio 984 (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, 2025 Ohio 984 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Boyd, 2025-Ohio-984.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT MONTGOMERY COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO : : Appellee : C.A. No. 30098 : v. : Trial Court Case No. 2023 CR 00291 : DYLAN BOYD : (Criminal Appeal from Common Pleas : Court) Appellant : :

...........

OPINION

Rendered on March 21, 2025

JOHNNA M. SHIA, Attorney for Appellant

MATHIAS H. HECK, JR., by SARAH H. CHANEY, Attorney for Appellee

.............

EPLEY, P.J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-Appellant Dylan Boyd appeals from his conviction in the

Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas after he was found guilty of having weapons

while under disability and its attendant firearm specification. He was sentenced to six

years in prison plus the 713 days remaining on his post-release control. For the reasons -2-

that follow, the judgment of the trial court will be affirmed.

I. Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 2} In January 2023, Boyd contacted E.M. to let him know that he was going to

be in town. The two had been friends in high school, but after spending the last several

years in different states (E.M. in Ohio and Boyd in Texas), contact between them had

been intermittent. Growing up, the pair played sports together, spent the night at each

other’s houses, and got to know each other’s families. E.M. said that Boyd “was my dog,

we was cool; we were super tight.” Trial Tr. at 168. Boyd and E.M. made plans to hang

out.

{¶ 3} On the evening of January 14, 2023, Boyd and his girlfriend, Zenia Thomas,

went to E.M.’s home in Huber Heights, which he shared with his girlfriend and daughter.

Boyd, who is trained as a barber, was going to cut E.M.’s hair. Boyd and Thomas arrived

between 7 and 8 p.m. in a white SUV, and E.M. introduced Boyd to his daughter as “Uncle

Dylan.” E.M. and Boyd chatted while E.M.’s hair was being cut, but E.M. thought his friend

was acting strangely. “[L]ooking back there was a lot of stuff that was weird that I just

brushed off because like I said, like it’s my dude. But it’s just like the look he had on his

face like even when he shook my hand . . . you could tell his mind was somewhere else.”

Trial Tr. at 174-175. Boyd and Thomas left around 10 p.m. and with plans to meet up later

with E.M.

{¶ 4} Later that night, Boyd Facetimed E.M. and told him to meet at Boyd’s

grandmother’s house. E.M., along with another friend, arrived at Boyd’s grandmother’s

house between 1 and 2 a.m. and parked beside Boyd’s white SUV in the driveway. E.M. -3-

got out and went to the door, but kept the car running because his friend, Josh Williams,

was still in the car.

{¶ 5} E.M. knocked on the front door and Boyd answered, but as E.M. entered,

Thomas exited. The two men spent a couple minutes inside and then walked back out of

the house to meet Boyd’s brother at a different location. As E.M. began walking toward

his car with Boyd trailing behind, he felt a gun on the back of his head. The next thing

E.M. knew, he woke up on the ground beside his still-running car with blood everywhere.

Everyone else had left. He then wrapped his sweater around his head and managed to

drive himself to Miami Valley Hospital. E.M. explained that “it felt like my head was about

to pop. Like my head was swelling up so bad. Like my brain shifted up to my skull and it

was swelling up.” Trial Tr. at 203.

{¶ 6} E.M. had been shot in the head and his injuries were severe. He testified that

doctors had to cut out a part of his skull to relieve the swelling and that he had to wear a

helmet for a time to protect his brain. He also endured multiple surgeries during his 10-

day stay in the hospital.

{¶ 7} A police investigation led to Boyd’s indictment on two counts of aggravated

robbery (Counts One and Two), two counts of felonious assault (Counts Three and Four),

one count of having weapons while under disability (Count Five), and one count of

attempted murder (Count Six). Each aggravated robbery and felonious assault charge

had an attendant three-year firearm specification and repeat violent offender

specification. The weapons under disability count had an attached three-year firearm

specification. -4-

{¶ 8} On October 11, 2023, Boyd filed a jury waiver on the weapons under

disability charge (Count Five) and the repeat violent offender specifications on Counts

One through Four.

{¶ 9} The case progressed to a jury trial on March 4, 2024. After several days of

testimony, Boyd was found not guilty of both counts of aggravated robbery, both counts

of felonious assault, and attempted murder. After a bench trial on March 15 on the

weapons under disability count, the trial court found him guilty of both the underlying

charge and the firearm specification. Boyd was sentenced to 36 months for having a

weapon while under disability, a mandatory three years for the firearm specification (to

be served prior to and consecutively to the underlying count), and the remaining 713 days

of post-release control from a prior conviction in 2012.

{¶ 10} Boyd has appealed, raising six assignments of error.

II. Jurisdiction to try the firearm specification

{¶ 11} In his first assignment of error, Boyd argues that the trial court lacked

jurisdiction to try him on the firearm specification because his jury waiver was only for the

underlying charge of having weapons while under disability, not the specification. We

disagree.

{¶ 12} According to R.C. 2945.05, in all criminal cases, a defendant may waive a

jury trial and instead be tried by the court. To be effective, the waiver must be “(1) in

writing, (2) signed by the defendant, (3) filed, (4) made part of the record, and (5) made

in open court.” State v. Lomax, 2007-Ohio-4277, ¶ 9. Courts must strictly comply with

these requirements. State v. Grier, 2010-Ohio-5751, ¶ 15 (2d Dist.). Further, “[a] jury -5-

waiver must be voluntary, knowing, and intelligent.” State v. Bays, 87 Ohio St.3d 15, 19

(1999).

{¶ 13} Boyd does not appear to challenge the voluntariness of his jury waiver; the

waiver was made in open court, in writing, was signed by Boyd, was made part of the

record, and was filed with the clerk. Instead, he contends that the waiver only covered the

having weapons under disability charge, not the firearm specification. The implication,

according to Boyd, is that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to hear the specification.

{¶ 14} A firearm specification cannot be tried on its own because “[it] is, by its very

nature, ancillary to, and completely dependent upon, the existence of the underlying

criminal charge or charges to which the specification is attached.” State v. Nagel, 84 Ohio

St.3d 280, 286 (1999). It is a “penalty enhancement” for the predicate offense, not its own

criminal offense. State v. Ford, 2011-Ohio-765, syllabus. Further, the statutory language

in R.C. 2929.14(B)(1)(a) indicates that the imposition of a prison term for a firearm

specification is contingent upon a conviction of a felony.

{¶ 15} Boyd’s proposition that he waived a jury trial on only the having weapons

under disability charge and not the specification would create an absurd result. In that

scenario, the jury would have before it a “disembodied” or “orphaned” specification. The

jury would have had the attempted murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault

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Bluebook (online)
2025 Ohio 984, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-boyd-ohioctapp-2025.