State v. Byrd

2025 Ohio 1045
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 26, 2025
Docket31197
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 1045 (State v. Byrd) 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. Byrd, 2025 Ohio 1045 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Byrd, 2025-Ohio-1045.]

STATE OF OHIO ) IN THE COURT OF APPEALS )ss: NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COUNTY OF SUMMIT )

STATE OF OHIO C.A. No. 31197

Appellee

v. APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT ENTERED IN THE CHRISTOPHER BYRD COURT OF COMMON PLEAS COUNTY OF SUMMIT, OHIO Appellant CASE No. CR 23 10 3295

DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY

Dated: March 26, 2025

FLAGG LANZINGER, Judge.

{¶1} Christopher Byrd appeals from the judgment of the Summit County Court of

Common Pleas that denied his motion to suppress. For the following reasons, this Court affirms.

I.

{¶2} On September 25, 2023, Detective Harvey with the Akron Police Department

applied for and obtained a search warrant for a residential property located at 630 East Catawba

Avenue in Akron. The search warrant related to suspected drug trafficking. Relevant to this

appeal, the search warrant permitted the search and seizure of:

Controlled substances, such as methamphetamine and other drugs of abuse; Drug abuse instruments, paraphernalia, and any other items used in the manufacturing, preparation, distribution, sale or use of illicit substances; deadly weapons, such as firearms and ammunition; records, such as documents, receipts, ledgers or other instruments (including those stored electronically) relating to illicit drug transaction; mail and other documents showing an indicia of control over the property; currency, safes and other lockboxes; computers, electronic tablets, removable hard drives and storage devices, cellular phones, cameras (and the electronically stored data and information found on any of the above devices/hardware); [and] Any other evidence of TRAFFICKING IN 2

CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES or POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES.

{¶3} In the “probable cause” section of his affidavit in support of the search warrant,

Detective Harvey averred, as summarized below, that:

(1) he personally participated in the investigation of Byrd’s distribution of controlled substances;

(2) he and other investigators received information that Byrd was supplying large amounts of crystal methamphetamine in the greater Akron area;

(3) on September 28, 2022, the Akron Police Department and MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agency received information from a confidential informant (“C.I.”) indicating that an individual named Quincey Byrd1 was selling methamphetamine in the Akron area;

(4) MEDWAY investigators believed the C.I.’s information was reliable because “his information has been consistently corroborated by independent investigation, corroborated by other witnesses, and corroborated by other information derived through the course of the investigation[;]”

(5) to his knowledge, the C.I. never provided deliberately false or misleading information to MEDWAY investigators;

(6) on December 8, 2022, the C.I. conducted a controlled purchase of narcotics from Quincey Byrd in a parking lot wherein: (a) Quincey Byrd and the C.I. met in a parking lot; (b) Quincey Byrd told the C.I. that a white vehicle would be arriving with the methamphetamine; (c) a white vehicle registered to Byrd arrived to the parking lot; (d) the driver of the white vehicle matched the description of Byrd listed on the vehicle’s registration; (e) Quincey Byrd met with the driver of the white vehicle; (f) after meeting with Quincey Byrd, the white vehicle left the parking lot; (g) Quincey Byrd then sold a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine to the C.I.; (h) the foregoing was observed by him (Detective Harvey), the Akron Police Department Narcotics Unit, and/or MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agents;

(7) on September 18, 2023, he (Detective Harvey) received information from the Stark County FBI Safe Streets Task Force indicating that a “source of information” who had known Byrd for many years told them that: (a) Byrd sold crystal methamphetamine; (b) Byrd lives at 630 East Catawba Avenue in Akron; (c) Byrd had multiple pounds of methamphetamine at his house at any given time; (d) Byrd delivered methamphetamine to parking lots near his house; (e) he had purchased methamphetamine from Byrd as recently as one month ago; (f) Byrd’s brother had recently been arrested for selling narcotics;

1 Although it is inferred that Quincey Byrd is Byrd’s brother, the record does not affirmatively indicate whether Byrd and Quincey Byrd are related. Their familial relation, or lack thereof, is of no consequence for purposes of this appeal. 3

(8) on September 19, 2023, the Akron Police Department Narcotics Unit assisted by the Akron Safe Streets Task Force executed a search warrant at a suspected drug dealer’s house wherein the detectives discovered: (a) an empty box addressed to Byrd; and (b) text messages between the suspected drug dealer and Byrd from August 10, 2023, regarding the suspected sale of methamphetamine;

(9) the suspected drug dealer later stated that he purchased methamphetamine from Byrd and that Byrd lived at 630 East Catawba Avenue in Akron.

{¶4} Upon execution of the search warrant, Byrd was arrested and later charged with

several drug-related offenses, including drug trafficking and possession. Byrd moved to suppress

the evidence law enforcement seized during the search of 630 East Catawba Avenue. Byrd argued

that the affidavit Detective Harvey submitted in support of the search warrant failed to set forth

probable cause because it relied upon stale facts and unreliable information from confidential

informants. Byrd also argued that the search warrant failed to satisfy the particularity requirement

under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 14 of the Ohio

Constitution because it authorized an overly broad search and seizure of “computers, electronic

tablets, removable hard drives and storage devices, cellular phones, cameras (and the electronically

stored data and information found on any of the above devices/hardware)” with “no temporal

boundary or subject matter limit . . . .”

{¶5} The State opposed Byrd’s motion to suppress. The trial court held a hearing on

Byrd’s motion. Neither Byrd nor the State presented testimony at the hearing. Instead, the parties

presented arguments solely on the “four corners” of the search warrant.

{¶6} After the hearing, the trial court issued a judgment entry that denied Byrd’s motion

to suppress. First, the trial court held that Detective Harvey’s affidavit set forth sufficient probable

cause because the affidavit’s reliance upon information the C.I. provided was also supported by

“personal observations and independent investigation.” Second, the trial court determined that the

affidavit did not rely upon stale facts because the events from 2022 were refreshed by the more 4

recent events from September 2023. Third, the trial court determined that the search warrant met

the particularity requirement because it was “sufficiently specific.”

{¶7} In determining that the search warrant met the particularity requirement, the trial

court cited case law for the proposition that a search warrant that includes broad categories of items

may nevertheless be valid if the description of the items is as specific as the circumstances and the

nature of the activity under investigation permit. The trial court also cited case law for the

proposition that a search warrant fails the particularity requirement if it gives the executing officers

unlimited discretion in determining what items are subject to search and seizure.

{¶8} In determining that the search warrant was “sufficiency specific[,]” the trial court

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2025 Ohio 1045, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-byrd-ohioctapp-2025.