State v. Campbell

2000 Ohio 183, 90 Ohio St. 3d 320
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 19, 2000
Docket1998-0980
StatusPublished

This text of 2000 Ohio 183 (State v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Campbell, 2000 Ohio 183, 90 Ohio St. 3d 320 (Ohio 2000).

Opinion

[This opinion has been published in Ohio Official Reports at 90 Ohio St.3d 320.]

THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. CAMPBELL, APPELLANT. [Cite as State v. Campbell, 2000-Ohio-183.] Criminal law—Aggravated murder—Death penalty vacated and cause remanded to trial court for further proceedings when trial court fails to comply with Crim.R. 32(A)(1)—When imposing sentence, trial court must address defendant personally and ask whether he or she wishes to make a statement in his or her own behalf or present any information in mitigation of punishment—Crim.R. 32(A)(1) applies to capital and noncapital cases—When trial court imposes sentence without first asking defendant whether he or she wishes to exercise right of allocution created by Crim.R. 32(A), resentencing is required unless error is invited or harmless error. 1. Pursuant to Crim.R. 32(A)(1), before imposing sentence, a trial court must address the defendant personally and ask whether he or she wishes to make a statement in his or her own behalf or present any information in mitigation of punishment. 2. Crim.R. 32(A)(1) applies to capital cases and noncapital cases. 3. In a case in which the trial court has imposed sentence without first asking the defendant whether he or she wishes to exercise the right of allocution created by Crim.R. 32(A), resentencing is required unless the error is invited error or harmless error. (No. 98-980—Submitted May 24, 2000—Decided December 20, 2000.) APPEAL from the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin County, No. 97CR-04- 2020. __________________ {¶ 1} Appellant, Alva E. Campbell, Jr., appeals his conviction of, and death sentence for, the aggravated murder of Charles Dials. SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

{¶ 2} In 1972, Campbell was convicted of murder in the first degree under former R.C. 2901.01 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Twenty years later, he was paroled. In 1997, Campbell was arrested in Franklin County on a charge of aggravated robbery. He was held at the Jackson Pike Jail pending arraignment. {¶ 3} On April 2, 1997, Deputy Sheriff Teresa Harrison was assigned to take Campbell to court, a task complicated by Campbell’s confinement to a wheelchair. Two weeks before, jail doctors had wrongly diagnosed Campbell as having “hysterical paralysis”; in fact, he was faking. Not knowing this, however, Harrison placed Campbell in a van and drove him into downtown Columbus. {¶ 4} Around 12:30 p.m., Charles Dials was paying a ticket at the traffic bureau of the Franklin County Municipal Court. {¶ 5} At about the same time, Deputy Harrison was parking the van in a loading dock at the courthouse. Harrison got out of the van and began to assist Campbell. Suddenly, Campbell attacked her. He beat her severely, stole her service pistol, and fled. {¶ 6} Charles Dials had just left the traffic bureau and was driving west on Fulton Street when Campbell ran outside. Campbell dashed into the street, stopped Dials’s truck, and pulled open the driver’s door. He told Dials, “I don’t want to hurt you; just move over.” And Campbell drove off, with Dials his prisoner. {¶ 7} Campbell drove to a K-Mart at Williams Road and South High Street. He parked there and talked with Dials, telling him not to be nervous. Then he drove back to Central Avenue, turned onto a side street, and parked near a factory. There, Campbell took Dials’s money and made Dials exchange clothes with him. {¶ 8} Next Campbell drove back to High Street, where he bought a forty- ounce bottle of beer at a drive-through. He then returned to the K-Mart. There he sat talking with Dials “probably a good 2 hours,” according to his confession. {¶ 9} When a helicopter circled overhead, Campbell became nervous and turned on the radio to hear the news. An announcer reporting on the escape

2 January Term, 2000

mentioned that Campbell had commandeered a red truck. Dials said, “That’s you, ain’t it?” Campbell admitted it was, and they talked a while longer. {¶ 10} Campbell then moved the truck behind the K-Mart, driving around the back lot three times before he finally chose a parking space. He said, “Charlie, I got to get another car.” Then he told Dials to “get on the floor board of his truck.” Dials obeyed, and Campbell shot him twice: once in the face and once in the neck. The shots were fired from at least six inches away, but no more than two or three feet. Campbell tried to cover the corpse with Dials’s coat. {¶ 11} Campbell then drove around to K-Mart’s main lot and waited. While he sat waiting, Katie Workman drove in. She parked near the truck and began to get out of her car. As she opened her door, Campbell ran up to her car and put the gun to her head. “Move over * * *,” he said. “I’ve just killed one man.” Workman moved over, and Campbell screamed, “Give me your money, your keys.” Workman threw her wallet and keys at Campbell and jumped out of the car. Campbell immediately drove away and went to the nearby Great Southern Shopping Center. {¶ 12} Around 3:20 or 3:30 p.m., James Gilliam was parked outside the Body Fit gym at the Great Southern, waiting for someone. When Campbell arrived, Gilliam was sitting in his car with the door open. Campbell forced his way into the space between Gilliam’s car and another car. {¶ 13} Suddenly, Gilliam felt the car door pressing against his legs. Then he felt a gun against his head and heard a man say: “[D]o you want to die? Get in the car and move over.” Gilliam looked up and saw a man he later identified as Campbell. {¶ 14} Gilliam pushed the door back at Campbell and stood up. Campbell said, “Get in the car and move over. I’ve done killed two people, and I’m not afraid to do it again.” Gilliam backed away, then turned and ran.

3 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

{¶ 15} Gilliam’s keys weren’t in the ignition, so Campbell jumped back into Workman’s car. He drove around for a while, at one point buying another forty- ounce beer at a drive-through. Campbell drove off in haste, then abandoned the car in an alley and fled on foot. Campbell hid in a tree, but the tree’s owner saw and reported him. Police soon surrounded the tree. {¶ 16} Seeing now that he was cornered, Campbell dropped the gun and surrendered. At 9:00 p.m., detectives from the Columbus Police Department and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office interrogated him on videotape. He gave the detectives a lengthy and detailed confession. {¶ 17} Campbell was indicted on four counts of aggravated murder. Count One charged aggravated murder under R.C. 2903.01(A) (prior calculation and design). Counts Two through Four charged aggravated murder under R.C. 2903.01(B) (felony-murder): Count Two was predicated on murder during an aggravated robbery, Count Three on murder during a kidnapping, and Count Four on murder during an escape. Each aggravated murder count carried four death specifications: murder to escape detection, R.C. 2929.04(A)(3); felony-murder predicated on aggravated robbery, R.C. 2929.04(A)(7); felony-murder predicated on kidnapping, R.C. 2929.04(A)(7); and having a prior murder conviction, R.C. 2929.04(A)(5). The indictment contained ten other counts: four counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of attempted kidnapping, and one count each of kidnapping, felonious assault, escape, and having a weapon under disability. {¶ 18} Campbell was convicted of all counts and specifications, but the trial judge merged the (A)(3) specifications into the felony-murder specifications. Thus, only three specifications were presented to the jury in the penalty phase. After a mitigation hearing, the jury recommended death. The trial judge merged the aggravated murder counts and sentenced Campbell to death on Count Three. {¶ 19} This cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right. __________________

4 January Term, 2000

Ron O’Brien, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, and Steven L. Taylor, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee. David H. Bodiker, Ohio Public Defender, Joseph E.

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2000 Ohio 183, 90 Ohio St. 3d 320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-campbell-ohio-2000.