State v. Chambers

2019 Ohio 4819
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 22, 2019
DocketL-18-1188
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2019 Ohio 4819 (State v. Chambers) 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. Chambers, 2019 Ohio 4819 (Ohio Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Chambers, 2019-Ohio-4819.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT LUCAS COUNTY

State of Ohio Court of Appeals No. L-18-1188

Appellee Trial Court No. CR0201801123

v.

Ronald Chambers DECISION AND JUDGMENT

Appellant Decided: November 22, 2019

*****

Julia R. Bates, Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney, and Lauren Carpenter, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Laurel A. Kendall, for appellant.

MAYLE, P.J.

{¶ 1} Appellant, Ronald Chambers, appeals the August 17, 2018 judgment of the

Lucas County Court of Common Pleas sentencing him to 8 years in prison. For the

following reasons, we affirm. I. Background and Facts

{¶ 2} In January 2018, Chambers was indicted on one count of felonious assault in

violation of R.C. 2903.11(A)(1), a second-degree felony.

{¶ 3} The trial court held a jury trial beginning on August 14, 2018. The victim,

Y.H., died before trial, so she did not testify. Instead, the state presented the testimony of

a clerk for the Toledo Police Department (“TPD”); Y.H.’s son, Z.S., who was 11 years

old at the time of the incident and 12 years old at the time of trial; a nurse practitioner

who treated Y.H.; two TPD detectives; and an analyst from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal

Investigation (“BCI”). Chambers also testified in his own behalf. The following facts

were adduced at trial.

{¶ 4} Chambers and Y.H., who were in a relationship, and Z.S. lived together in a

duplex in Toledo. Z.S. recalled living on the first floor of the building, although other

witnesses—including Chambers—said that they lived on the second floor. Sometime

between the evening of December 6, 2017, and the morning of December 7, 2017,

Chambers and Y.H. were involved in an altercation. Although the timeline presented by

Z.S. was not entirely clear, he testified that he was woken around 9:30 p.m. on

December 6 by Chambers yelling at his mother that she should not be cheating on him

and to stop leaving the house without telling him. When the yelling stopped, Z.S. heard

“[l]oud pounding” that he assumed was “the floor banging against each other with my

mom.” He also heard moaning from his mother. When the yelling and pounding

stopped, Z.S. went to the living room and “saw everything was knocked over * * *.” He

2. grabbed his phone to contact someone, but, as it was around 10:00 p.m., Z.S. believed

that the police station was closed and his uncle would be sleeping. Chambers saw Z.S.

with his phone and took the phone away, claiming that it needed to be charged.

{¶ 5} Chambers apparently went back into the bedroom that he and Y.H. shared

because Z.S. next recalled Chambers walking out of the bedroom with Z.S.’s phone. At

that point, Z.S. saw Y.H. trying to crawl out of the bedroom, but Chambers “grabbed her

and dragged her back in the room.” Z.S. returned to his room. He testified both that he

did not hear anything further from Chambers or Y.H. and that the argument went on until

5:00 a.m. on December 7.

{¶ 6} At 6:00 a.m. on December 7, Z.S. woke up for school. He said that Y.H.

was “limping and holding the walls” as she walked around the house that morning, but it

was dark, so he could not see her face.

{¶ 7} Chambers drove Z.S. to school that day, and, on the way, Z.S. asked him

why he threatened to kill Y.H. and her father. Chambers said it was “just talk.” Z.S. also

asked about the pounding and moaning that happened the night before. Chambers

responded that Y.H. had fallen down the stairs. Z.S. did not believe Chambers.

{¶ 8} When Y.H. picked Z.S. up from school on December 7, she was wearing a

mask (which Z.S. described as a “doctor mask”) that prevented Z.S. from seeing her face.

He said that she was talking “like a kazoo” and he had difficulty understanding what she

was saying.

3. {¶ 9} Z.S. also testified that he saw his mother’s bed on December 7 and it looked

like “dots of, like, somebody spilled Hawaiian Punch on the bed.” He claimed that the

dots were not there on December 6.

{¶ 10} According to Z.S., Y.H. went to the hospital three days later and had wires

put in her mouth “[b]ecause her jawline was messed up.” He recalled her being in the

hospital for two days. He said that a photograph that the state admitted into evidence

showing Y.H. with a large bruise on the left side of her face accurately depicted his

mother as she looked after December 6, 2017.

{¶ 11} Y.H. and Z.S. continued to live at the duplex with Chambers “for, like, a

month” after December 6. Sometime after Christmas, Z.S. told some of his family

members what had happened between Chambers and Y.H., and the family members

intervened to help Y.H. At the time Y.H. and Z.S. left the duplex, Z.S. said, Y.H. was

still having trouble walking and still had wires in her mouth. He recalled that the wires

were removed before Y.H. died on February 20, 2018.

{¶ 12} Following Y.H.’s death, Z.S. left Toledo, where he had lived his whole life,

to move to Tennessee to live with his sister.

{¶ 13} On cross, Z.S. said that police did not meet with him to discuss the incident

until after his mom died. Detective Theresa Talton of the TPD domestic violence unit,

who took over the investigation of this case when the original detective retired, explained

that Y.H. identified Z.S. as a witness when she made her initial report to the police, but

the TPD does not generally interview children who witness domestic violence incidents

4. to avoid further traumatizing them. In this case, however, Talton’s predecessor had to

interview Z.S. after his mother died because “he was a witness and [Y.H.] was no longer

able to speak for herself * * *.”

{¶ 14} Stephanie Hutchison, a trauma nurse practitioner who treated Y.H. at the

hospital, testified that she treated Y.H. on December 13, 2017—one week after the

incident. She diagnosed Y.H. with a closed fracture of the left mandible and a laceration

of the upper lip with complication. The “complication” was a “shattered” tooth. The jaw

fracture had “100% displacement laterally,” which Hutchison described as “imagine

snapping a pencil, it’s completely broken in half * * *.”

{¶ 15} When Hutchison first saw Y.H., Hutchison thought that Y.H. had been

crying and that she seemed afraid. Y.H.’s face was swollen and she had “an obvious

deformity to her jaw * * *.” Hutchison also noticed a foul odor that she eventually traced

to Y.H.’s broken tooth. In her experience, Hutchison said, open wounds did not emit an

odor until three days to two weeks after the injury. This told Hutchison that Y.H.’s

injuries had not happened immediately before Y.H. came to the hospital. Y.H. explained

this delay to Hutchison by saying that she was “finally able to leave” and “wasn’t

allowed to go” before then. Y.H. said she was with her boyfriend from the time she was

injured until she went to the hospital.

{¶ 16} While Hutchison was examining Y.H., Y.H.’s boyfriend—who Hutchison

identified as Chambers—and Z.S. came into the room. Chambers asked Hutchison who

she was and why she was there. He seemed “a little standoffish, angry is the word.

5. Didn’t like [Hutchison] being in the room, that’s for sure.” Hutchison did not speak to

Chambers because Y.H. had asked her not to.

{¶ 17} When Hutchison asked, Y.H. said she hurt her jaw by twice falling off an

air mattress and hitting a chair.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2019 Ohio 4819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chambers-ohioctapp-2019.