State v. McCarley

2018 Ohio 4685
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 21, 2018
Docket28657
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2018 Ohio 4685 (State v. McCarley) 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. McCarley, 2018 Ohio 4685 (Ohio Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. McCarley, 2018-Ohio-4685.]

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

STATE OF OHIO C.A. No. 28657

Appellee

v. APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT ENTERED IN THE WILLARD MCCARLEY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS COUNTY OF SUMMIT, OHIO Appellant CASE No. CR-2004-05-1674-A

DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY

Dated: November 21, 2018

SCHAFER, Presiding Judge.

{¶1} Defendant-Appellant, Willard McCarley, appeals from his convictions in the

Summit County Court of Common Pleas. This Court affirms.

I.

{¶2} In 2004, McCarley was arrested in connection with a murder that occurred twelve

years earlier. The victim, C.P., was the mother of his son and was in the process of seeking child

support from him when she was murdered. On the morning of January 20, 1992, a neighbor

entered C.P.’s apartment and discovered her body beneath a blanket on the couch. C.P. had a

belt looped around her neck, a small plastic bag in her mouth, and multiple head wounds. The

door to her apartment, which required a key to be locked from the outside, was locked when the

neighbor arrived.

{¶3} C.P. had two young sons, both of whom were home when she was murdered. The

eldest son, who was then three and a half years old, was able to unlock the apartment door for the 2

neighbor when she arrived. Both that day and in the days that followed, the eldest son indicated

that a policeman had hurt his mother. Although the police initially investigated McCarley, the

investigation eventually stalled, and the case remained unresolved for a number of years.

{¶4} In 1995, the police arrested McCarley on an unrelated matter. The actual arrest

took place at his home in his garage. While McCarley was being taken into custody, one of the

officers noticed a deputy sheriff’s jacket and hat with a sheriff’s insignia hanging on a dolly in

the garage. Because McCarley had no law enforcement affiliations, the police confiscated and

retained the items.

{¶5} In 2004, DNA testing was performed on swabs taken from each end of the belt

that was found looped around C.P.’s neck. Y-STR testing, which had not been available at the

time of her murder, uncovered at least two male profiles. When comparing those profiles with

McCarley’s profile, analysts determined that he could not be excluded as the source of the major

profile. Consequently, McCarley was finally arrested for C.P.’s murder.

{¶6} A grand jury indicted McCarley on one count of aggravated murder. His first jury

trial resulted in a conviction, but it was overturned on appeal. See State v. McCarley, 9th Dist.

Summit No. 22562, 2006-Ohio-1176. Because the trial court had improperly vouched for a key

witness in the presence of the jury, this Court determined that McCarley had been denied a fair

trial. Id. at ¶ 19. As such, we remanded the matter for further proceedings. Id. at ¶21.

{¶7} On remand, McCarley filed several motions to suppress, including one that

challenged the seizure of the sheriff’s jacket and hat found in his garage. The trial court held a

hearing on his motion and later denied it. The matter then proceeded to a second jury trial. That

trial also resulted in a conviction, and McCarley once again appealed. On review, this Court

affirmed his conviction. See State v. McCarley, 9th Dist. Summit No. 23607, 2008-Ohio-552. 3

{¶8} McCarley later moved for habeas relief in federal court, and several years of

litigation ensued. In 2015, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, on remand from the United States

Supreme Court, determined that his second trial had resulted in a violation of his rights under the

Confrontation Clause. See McCarley v. Kelly, 801 F.3d 652 (6th Cir.2015). Accordingly, the

Sixth Circuit ordered the District Court to issue a conditional writ of habeas corpus, id. at 668,

and the matter once again came before the trial court for further proceedings.

{¶9} A third jury trial was held, at the conclusion of which the jury found McCarley

guilty of aggravated murder. The court sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of

parole in 20 years. In its sentencing entry, the court wrote that McCarley would be eligible for

parole “after Twenty (20) full years.”

{¶10} McCarley now appeals from his conviction and raises three assignments of error

for our review. For ease of analysis, we rearrange the assignments of error.

II.

Assignment of Error II

The trial court erred when it denied the motion to suppress the sheriff’s coat and hat found in Willard McCarley’s garage.

{¶11} In his second assignment of error, McCarley argues that the trial court erred by

denying his motion to suppress. Because McCarley is precluded from raising this issue, we

overrule his assignment of error.

{¶12} “The doctrine of law of the case ‘provides that the decision of a reviewing court

in a case remains the law of that case on the legal questions involved for all subsequent

proceedings in the case at both the trial and reviewing levels.’” State v. Chapman, 190 Ohio

App.3d 528, 2010-Ohio-5924, ¶ 7, quoting Nolan v. Nolan, 11 Ohio St. 3d 1, 3 (1984). The

doctrine “is rooted in principles of res judicata and issue preclusion * * *.” State v. Fischer, 128 4

Ohio St.3d 92, 2010-Ohio-6238, ¶ 35. “Thus, [it] has been applied to preclude a litigant ‘from

attempting to rely on arguments at a retrial [that] were fully pursued, or available to be pursued,

in [an earlier] appeal.’” (Emphasis added.) State v. Hartman, 9th Dist. Medina No. 12CA0057-

M, 2013-Ohio-4407, ¶ 6, quoting Chapman at ¶ 7.

{¶13} McCarley filed his motion to suppress before his second trial, and the court

denied his motion at that time. McCarley could have challenged the court’s suppression ruling

when pursuing his second direct appeal, but he did not do so. And while McCarley secured

federal relief, that relief only pertained to errors that occurred at his trial. It did not address any

pretrial proceedings or rulings. Accordingly, McCarley may not now litigate an issue that was

available to be pursued in his earlier appeal. Hartman at ¶ 6-7. His argument “is subject to issue

preclusion pursuant to the law of the case doctrine.” Id. at ¶ 7, citing Chapman at ¶ 8. Thus, his

second assignment of error is overruled on that basis.

Assignment of Error I

Willard McCarley’s conviction is against the manifest weight of the evidence, in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 16 of the Ohio Constitution.

{¶14} In his first assignment of error, McCarley argues that his conviction is against the

manifest weight of the evidence. Specifically, he argues that the jury lost its way when it

concluded that he was the individual who perpetrated C.P.’s murder. We disagree.

{¶15} In determining whether a criminal conviction is against the manifest weight of the

evidence, this Court is required to consider the whole record, “weigh the evidence and all

reasonable inferences, consider the credibility of the witnesses and determine whether, in

resolving conflicts in the evidence, the trier of fact clearly lost its way and created such a

manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be reversed and a new trial ordered.” 5

State v. Otten, 33 Ohio App.3d 339, 340 (9th Dist.1986). “When a court of appeals reverses a

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2018 Ohio 4685, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mccarley-ohioctapp-2018.