State v. Lee, Unpublished Decision (12-18-2001)

CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 18, 2001
DocketNo. 01AP-16 (REGULAR CALENDAR).
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Lee, Unpublished Decision (12-18-2001) (State v. Lee, Unpublished Decision (12-18-2001)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law.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State v. Lee, Unpublished Decision (12-18-2001), (Ohio Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION
Defendant-appellant, Kevin B. Lee, appeals from a judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas finding him guilty of one count each of aggravated burglary, felonious assault, rape, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery, all with at least one specification, and two counts of receiving stolen property. In addition, the trial court found defendant to be a "sexual predator" pursuant to R.C. Chapter 2950.

According to the state's evidence, in the early morning of May 21, 1999, defendant entered Alma Hannum's house, assaulted Hannum, raped her, robbed her, and stole jewelry. Defendant also forced Hannum to give him an ATM card and to accompany him while he drove her car to a bank to make a withdrawal from her account with the ATM card. Because Hannum had mistakenly given defendant a credit card instead of the ATM card, defendant and Hannum returned to Hannum's home so she could provide defendant with the correct card. At one point, defendant left Hannum alone as she searched for the ATM card, and Hannum escaped to a neighbor's house. After obtaining the victim's description of her assailant, police commenced a search for defendant who had fled in Hannum's car.

After fleeing Hannum's house, defendant saw Herbert Taylor on a neighborhood street and asked Taylor to drive him to a crack house in exchange for providing Taylor with money for gasoline. Defendant parked Hannum's car, and Taylor drove defendant, who was carrying a pillowcase with something inside it, to the crack house. Although Taylor initially waited in his car for defendant, Taylor later went inside the house. Before defendant and Taylor left the crack house, the victim's jewelry was put in another pillowcase because the original pillowcase was torn. Defendant and Taylor then drove toward the location where defendant had parked Hannum's car.

While defendant and Taylor were traveling back to Hannum's car, police observed defendant in the passenger seat of Taylor's car, saw that he matched the description Hannum had provided, and stopped the car after determining Taylor had outstanding warrants. Subsequent to the stop, police searched the vehicle, found a pillowcase with jewelry, and arrested defendant.

Later that same morning, Hannum identified defendant in a photo array. She recognized defendant as her attacker the first time she saw the array, and was certain of her identification.

By indictment filed May 28, 1999, defendant was charged with one count of aggravated burglary with specification as a repeat violent offender, one count of felonious assault with specification as a repeat violent offender, one count of rape with specifications as a repeat violent offender and a sexually violent predator, one count of kidnapping with specification as a repeat violent offender, one count of aggravated robbery with specification as a repeat violent offender, and two counts of receiving stolen property.

A jury trial was held, with the specifications tried to the court. The jury rendered a guilty verdict on all counts. The trial court found defendant guilty of the repeat violent offender specifications, but not guilty of the sexually violent predator specification. Following a sexual predator hearing pursuant to R.C. 2950.09, the trial court found defendant to be a sexual predator. The trial court sentenced defendant and ordered restitution in the amount of $3,335 to Hannum. Defendant appeals, assigning the following errors:

I. IN VIOLATION [OF] R.C. 2941.25 AND THE FIFTH AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION (DOUBLE JEOPARDY), DEFENDANT-APPELLANT WAS CONVICTED OF TWO COUNTS OF RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY, AGGRAVATED ROBBERY, AGGRAVATED BURGLARY, AND FELONIOUS ASSAULT.

II. DEFENDANT-APPELLANT'S CONVICTION WAS OBTAINED AGAINST THE MANIFEST WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE IN VIOLATION OF THE FEDERAL AND OHIO CONSTITUTIONS.

III. DEFENDANT-APPELLANT WAS HIGHLY PREJUDICED AND DENIED A FAIR TRIAL IN VIOLATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION WHEN, IN VIOLATION OF THE TRIAL COURT'S ORDER, A STATE WITNESS TESTIFIED THAT SEVERAL DROPS OF UNTESTED BLOOD WAS ON THE CLOTHING OF DEFENDANT-APPELLANT. THIS ACT CONSTITUTED PLAIN ERROR AND/OR DEFENSE COUNSEL WAS INEFFECTIVE FOR FAILING TO OBJECT.

IV. APPELLANT WAS HIGHLY PREJUDICED AND DENIED A FAIR TRIAL IN VIOLATION WITH [sic] THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, ARTICLE 10 OF THE OHIO CONSTITUTION, AND THE OHIO RULES OF EVIDENCE, WHEN A WITNESS INFERRED THAT DEFENDANT-APPELLANT HAD BEEN IN PRISON.

V. THE TRIAL COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN SENTENCING DEFENDANT-APPELLANT TO NOT ONLY THE MAXIMUM SENTENCES FOR FELONIOUS ASSAULT, BURGLARY AND RAPE, BUT ALSO ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN SENTENCING DEFENDANT-APPELLANT TO AN ADDITIONAL SEVEN YEARS AS A REPEAT VIOLENT OFFENDER.

Defendant's first assignment of error contends the trial court violated R.C. 2941.25 and the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment through its jury instructions.

Preliminarily, defendant failed to object in the trial court, and therefore waived any error. Absent objection, plain error must be proven to warrant reversal. State v. Moss (Dec. 28, 1999), Franklin App. No. 99AP-30, unreported. To prove plain error, defendant must demonstrate that, but for the error, the trial's outcome would have been otherwise. State v. Long (1978), 53 Ohio St.2d 91, 97. Additionally, "[n]otice of plain error * * * is to be taken with the utmost caution, under exceptional circumstances and only to prevent a manifest miscarriage of justice." Id. at paragraph three of the syllabus.

The protection against double jeopardy afforded by federal and state constitutions guards against both successive prosecutions and cumulative punishments for the same offense. State v. Rance (1999), 85 Ohio St.3d 632,634. See, also, Section 10, Article I, Ohio Constitution. "In Ohio it is unnecessary to resort to the Blockburger test [Blockburger v. United States (1932), 284 U.S. 299] in determining whether cumulative punishments imposed within a single trial for more than one offense resulting from the same criminal conduct violate the federal and state constitutional provisions against double jeopardy. Instead, R.C. 2941.25's two-step test answers the constitutional and state statutory inquiries. The statute manifests the General Assembly's intent to permit, in appropriate cases, cumulative punishments for the same conduct." Id. at 639. Accordingly, defendant's double jeopardy argument must be examined under R.C. 2941.25, Ohio's multiple-count statute.

"With its multiple-count statute Ohio intends to permit a defendant to be punished for multiple offenses of dissimilar import. R.C. 2941.25(B); State v. Blankenship (1988), 38 Ohio St.3d 116, 117 * * * If, however, a defendant's actions `can be construed to constitute two or more allied offenses of similar import,' the defendant may be convicted (i.e., found guilty and punished) of only one. R.C. 2941.25(A).

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Related

Blockburger v. United States
284 U.S. 299 (Supreme Court, 1931)
Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
State v. Dehass
227 N.E.2d 212 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1967)
State v. Hector
249 N.E.2d 912 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1969)
State v. Breedlove
271 N.E.2d 238 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1971)
State v. Long
372 N.E.2d 804 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1978)
State v. Blankenship
526 N.E.2d 816 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1988)
State v. Jones
676 N.E.2d 80 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Thompkins
678 N.E.2d 541 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Rance
85 Ohio St. 3d 632 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Edmonson
715 N.E.2d 131 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Lee, Unpublished Decision (12-18-2001), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lee-unpublished-decision-12-18-2001-ohioctapp-2001.