State v. Coleman

2018 Ohio 1923
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided May 16, 2018·No. 28640, 28641·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Coleman, 2018-Ohio-1923.]

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

STATE OF OHIO C.A. Nos. 28640 28641 Appellee

v. APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT CHARLES D. COLEMAN ENTERED IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS Appellant COUNTY OF SUMMIT, OHIO CASE Nos. CR 2016 10 3554 (B) CR 2016 05 1716 (B)

DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY

Dated: May 16, 2018

TEODOSIO, Judge.

{¶1} Appellant, Charles D. Coleman, appeals from his convictions in the Summit

County Court of Common Pleas. This Court affirms, but remands the matter for the trial court to

issue a nunc pro tunc judgment entry.

I.

{¶2} In May of 2016, R.M. wanted to trade food stamps for heroin, so a female

acquaintance connected him to an individual who was willing to facilitate an exchange. Mr.

Coleman and two others (“Terrance” and “Anthony”) arrived at R.M.’s residence and forced him

go with them to a nearby Save-a-Lot store while they used his food stamp card. The men all

traveled to the store together in one vehicle, and two of them went inside to buy food with

R.M.’s food stamp card. Afterward, they drove to a turnaround at the end of a road and all three

men physically attacked R.M. He managed to escape and locate a nearby Stow police officer 2

that the men had just recently passed on the road. The officer soon located and stopped the

vehicle as it came back down the road from the turnaround and eventually arrested all four men,

including R.M. Mr. Coleman was indicted on a felony charge of illegal use of food stamps or

WIC program benefits as well as misdemeanor assault.

{¶3} In October of 2016, an Akron police officer was dispatched to investigate a

suspicious vehicle parked in the entrance to a parking lot with three men inside. Terrance was in

the driver’s seat, Anthony was the front passenger seat, and Mr. Coleman was in the rear seat,

directly behind the driver. Anthony was arrested on an active warrant and he admitted that there

was a gun under his seat. After Terrance and Mr. Coleman were removed from the vehicle,

officers located Anthony’s gun as well as another loaded gun stashed deep down in the map

pocket behind the driver’s seat. Mr. Coleman was indicted on a felony charge of improperly

handling firearms in a motor vehicle.

{¶4} Mr. Coleman waived his right to a jury trial and both matters proceeded to a

bench trial. The trial court found him guilty of all three offenses and sentenced him to two years

of community control.

{¶5} Mr. Coleman now appeals from his convictions and raises two assignments of

error for this Court’s review. Although he appealed both of his criminal cases separately, this

Court consolidated the two appeals, as both cases were tried together in the trial court.

II.

{¶6} Before addressing Mr. Coleman’s assignments of error, we must first address an

error brought to this Court’s attention by the State, regarding the trial court’s judgment entry and

Mr. Coleman’s conviction for improper handling. Mr. Coleman was convicted of improperly

handling firearms in a motor vehicle under R.C. 2923.16(B), which is undeniably a felony of the 3

fourth degree. See R.C. 2923.16(I) (“A violation of division (B) of this section is a felony of the

fourth degree”). A review of the record reveals that the charge was properly indicted as a felony

of the fourth degree and that Mr. Coleman was found guilty at trial of a felony of the fourth

degree. During his sentencing hearing, the trial court properly sentenced Mr. Coleman for a

felony of the fourth degree. However, the court’s judgment entry contains a clerical error as it

mistakenly refers to the offense as a felony of the fifth degree. As it is clear from the record that

this is simply a clerical error, we must remand the matter for the trial court to issue a nunc pro

tunc judgment entry to reflect that Mr. Coleman was found guilty of improperly handling

firearms in a motor vehicle under R.C. 2923.16(B), a felony of the fourth degree. See State v.

Higgins, 9th Dist. Summit No. 27700, 2018-Ohio-476, ¶ 21.

{¶7} We now turn to the merits of Mr. Coleman’s assignments of error.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR ONE

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED AS A MATTER OF LAW AND DENIED THE DEFENDANT HIS CONSTITUTIONAL DUE PROCESS RIGHTS WHEN IT FAILED TO SUSTAIN THE DEFENDANT’S CRIM.R. 29 MOTIONS FOR ACQUITTAL BASED ON INSUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

{¶8} In his first assignment of error, Mr. Coleman argues that his convictions are based

on insufficient evidence and the trial court erred in not granting his Crim.R. 29 motion for

acquittal. We disagree.

{¶9} “We review a denial of a defendant’s Crim.R. 29 motion for acquittal by

assessing the sufficiency of the State’s evidence.” State v. Frashuer, 9th Dist. Summit No.

24769, 2010-Ohio-634, ¶ 33. “A sufficiency challenge of a criminal conviction presents a

question of law, which we review de novo.” State v. Spear, 9th Dist. Summit No. 28181, 2017-

Ohio-169, ¶ 6, citing State v. Thompkins, 78 Ohio St.3d 380, 386 (1997). “Sufficiency concerns

the burden of production and tests whether the prosecution presented adequate evidence for the 4

case to go to the jury.” State v. Bressi, 9th Dist. Summit No. 27575, 2016-Ohio-5211, ¶ 25,

citing Thompkins at 386. “The relevant inquiry is whether, after viewing the evidence in a light

most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential

elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id., quoting State v. Jenks, 61 Ohio

St.3d 259 (1991), paragraph two of the syllabus. However, “we do not resolve evidentiary

conflicts or assess the credibility of witnesses, because these functions belong to the trier of

fact.” State v. Hall, 9th Dist. Summit No. 27827, 2017-Ohio-73, ¶ 10.

{¶10} Mr. Coleman was convicted of illegal use of food stamps or WIC program

benefits under R.C. 2913.46(B), which states:

No individual shall knowingly possess, buy, sell, use, alter, accept, or transfer supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits, WIC program benefits, or any electronically transferred benefit in any manner not authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.) or section 17 of the “Child Nutrition Act of 1966,” 80 Stat. 885, 42 U.S.C. 1786, as amended.

“A person acts knowingly, regardless of purpose, when the person is aware that the person’s

conduct will probably cause a certain result or will probably be of a certain nature.” R.C.

2901.22(B).

{¶11} Mr. Coleman concedes that the parties stipulated prior to trial that buying, selling,

or transferring food stamps is not authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. He argues

instead that the State failed to prove the requisite mens rea element of “knowingly” for the

offense. He directs us to R.M.’s testimony in which he referred to the three men only by

numbers and claims that R.M. could not recall which individual sat in which seat. He further

directs us to Sergeant Jeffrey Breznak’s testimony in which he stated his investigation indicated

that Mr. Coleman never went into the store and that R.M. arranged the exchange with Terrance. 5

{¶12} During his testimony at trial, R.M. referred to the men by their seating position in

the car.

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