State v. Lloyd, 22013 (4-18-2008)

2008 Ohio 1874
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 18, 2008
DocketNo. 22013.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2008 Ohio 1874 (State v. Lloyd, 22013 (4-18-2008)) 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. Lloyd, 22013 (4-18-2008), 2008 Ohio 1874 (Ohio Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION
{¶ 1} Sean A. Lloyd was convicted after a jury trial in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas of receiving stolen property, a fifth degree felony. The court sentenced him to five years of community control. Lloyd appeals from his conviction, asserting that his counsel *Page 2 rendered ineffective assistance, that his conviction was based on insufficient evidence and against the manifest weight of the evidence, and that the trial court improperly ordered restitution. For the following reasons, Lloyd's conviction will be affirmed, as modified, and the matter will be remanded to the trial court for resentencing.

{¶ 2} The state's evidence at trial established the following facts.

{¶ 3} Sean Lloyd worked in the Management Information Systems ("MIS") Department of National City Mortgage ("National City") at its Miamisburg, Ohio offices. His job involved asset management, which included accepting new computer equipment from vendors, unloading trucks, and keeping track of computer assets. When computer equipment was returned to the MIS Department, the equipment was sent to a company called Benchmark, which kept the equipment for storage, redeployment to other employees, or disposal. National City did not allow employees to take home computer equipment. However, it was not unusual for technical employees to carry equipment to their cars and take the equipment to another building on the National City campus.

{¶ 4} In late December 2005, National City began an internal investigation of employees stealing computer items and then reselling them on eBay. The investigation initially led to Shawn Lambert, Michael Sharpe, and Christopher Beatty as suspects in the thefts. Lambert began working in the MIS Department at National City in August 2005 through Robert Half Technologies, a temporary employment agency. Lambert was responsible for transferring users' data from older laptops and desktop computers and setting them up on new work stations. Lambert dealt with Lloyd on a day-to-day basis, picking up new equipment and returning old equipment. *Page 3

{¶ 5} Lambert admitted that he took equipment from National City without permission, mostly for his personal use at home. Lambert also acknowledged that he took desktop memory chips from computers that were being shipped to Benchmark and sold them on eBay without permission from National City. Lambert identified Lloyd as an individual who was supplying him with computer parts, and he stated that he went to Lloyd's home around Christmas 2005 and got computer equipment, including a Cisco router and PC-133 memory chips, from Lloyd.

{¶ 6} On February 1, 2006, Jim Swauger, who performs corporate security services for National City, contacted Detective Patrick McCoy of the Miami Township Police Department to report the internal thefts. McCoy interviewed Lambert, Sharpe, and Beatty as suspects in the thefts. McCoy learned that Lloyd was supplying computer parts to Lambert. Sharpe and Beatty, however, denied knowing Lloyd or receiving anything from him.

{¶ 7} On February 15, 2006, at approximately 5:30 p.m., Swauger and his supervisor, Gary Smith, were leaving to discuss the case with McCoy when they saw Lloyd carrying three 17-inch LCD monitor boxes. Smith, Swauger, Lloyd, and Wesley Nease, another employee, waited for an elevator together. Smith said to Lloyd that it was a nice day, and he asked Lloyd if he was planning to return. Lloyd stated that he was not coming back. Swauger and Smith entered Smith's car and drove by Lloyd's SUV. Swauger wrote down Lloyd's license plate number as Lloyd put the monitors in his back seat.

{¶ 8} On February 16, 2006, McCoy, along with Detective Scott Moore, interviewed Lloyd at National City. Lloyd told the detectives that he knew Lambert, but *Page 4 he denied giving any computer components or items to him. McCoy asked Lloyd if he had removed three 17-inch monitors from National City the previous day. McCoy told him that Swauger and Smith had seen him on the elevator. Lloyd admitted that he had taken the three monitors and that they were at his house. Lloyd later gave the officers permission to search his house and retrieve the monitors. Lloyd stated that Charlene Dixon, his supervisor, had given him permission to remove the monitors from National City, and he indicated that the monitors were going to be thrown away.

{¶ 9} McCoy went to Lloyd's residence with Smith, Moore, and other officers. Although they saw USB cables on the desks, they found no computer units in the house. In the basement, McCoy located empty Hewlett Packard computer boxes with address labels addressed to National City Mortgage. McCoy also located a receipt from the U-Store-It storage facility on North Smithville Road that was in Lloyd's name.

{¶ 10} The next day, McCoy went to Lloyd's home and informed him that he had not located the computer monitors. Lloyd offered that his friends must have thrown them away. McCoy subsequently obtained a search warrant for the storage facility. On February 24, 2006, McCoy executed the search warrant with Detective Sakal, Slater and Smith. McCoy created an inventory and receipt for approximately eighteen groups of items removed from Lloyd's storage unit. McCoy contacted Swauger, informed him that the police had recovered computer equipment from a storage facility, and stated that he wanted to know if any of the assets were National City's based on their serial numbers. The LCD monitors were not found at the storage facility.

{¶ 11} National City "didn't have a clear system in place" for maintaining an inventory of computer equipment, which included thousands of computers, and the *Page 5 records were not maintained together. As stated by Swauger, "records were everywhere." However, over the next couple of weeks, Swauger looked through several of National City's records, including invoices for larger "capital items," and he was able to identify two of the printers found in the storage facility (items four and six on the inventory) as belonging to National City. Swauger stated that the keyboards, two additional printers, and the computer mice were the same type as used by National City, but he could not trace them back to National City. Swauger also could not trace the memory chips.

{¶ 12} On May 5, 2006, Lloyd was indicted for receiving stolen property belonging to National City with a value of $500 or more. After a jury trial, he was convicted of the charge. At the sentencing hearing on January 10, 2007, the court sentenced Lloyd to five years of community control and ordered him to pay restitution to National City in the amount of $4,315.84, plus court costs, a supervision fee of $50, and attorney fees of $130.

{¶ 13} Lloyd appeals, raising six assignments of error, which we will address in a manner that facilitates our analysis.

{¶ 14} "II. "APPELLANT'S CONVICTION WAS AGAINST THE SUFFICIENCY AND/OR THE MANIFEST WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE."

{¶ 15} In his second assignment of error, Lloyd claims that his conviction was based on insufficient evidence and was against the manifest weight of the evidence.

{¶ 16}

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Bluebook (online)
2008 Ohio 1874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lloyd-22013-4-18-2008-ohioctapp-2008.