State v. Mincy, Unpublished Decision (3-23-2007)

2007 Ohio 1316
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 23, 2007
DocketNo. C-060041.
StatusUnpublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2007 Ohio 1316 (State v. Mincy, Unpublished Decision (3-23-2007)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law.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State v. Mincy, Unpublished Decision (3-23-2007), 2007 Ohio 1316 (Ohio Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

OPINION. *Page 2 {¶ 1} Following a bench trial, defendant-appellant Brandon Mincy was convicted of felonious assault, two counts of kidnapping, inducing panic, and disruption of public services. The offenses stemmed from an incident in which Mincy and another young man had boarded a Cincinnati Metro bus with a gun and terrorized the bus driver and passengers.

{¶ 2} The indictment charged Mincy and Dante Allen as co-defendants. Mincy and Allen were tried together in a bench trial and were found guilty. Before they were sentenced, a young man named Derrick Smith admitted to having been Mincy's accomplice and said that Allen was not present at the time of the offenses. Mincy moved for a new trial based upon Smith's admission, but the trial court denied the motion and sentenced Mincy to six years in prison. Mincy now appeals.

The Evidence at Trial
{¶ 3} In the summer of 2005, ongoing disputes between gangs in two Cincinnati neighborhoods, Avondale and Bond Hill, had erupted into violence. And on June 6, 2005, a 16-year-old Avondale boy named Eugene Lampkin was shot to death in Bond Hill.

{¶ 4} Several hours after the shooting, Angela Jones was driving a Cincinnati Metro bus on its route through Bond Hill. At the time, the bus was carrying about 20 passengers.

{¶ 5} When Jones stopped at a bus stop in Avondale, two young men boarded the bus without paying. One of the men lifted his shirt and took a gun from his pants. The man held the gun sideways in his hand with his arm extended. *Page 3 Initially, the man pointed the gun toward Jones. He then brandished the gun as he and his companion walked down the aisle of the bus.

{¶ 6} As soon as the men had passed her, Jones pressed the bus's "panic button" to alert the Metro dispatchers to summon the police. As the two men paced back and forth in the aisle of the bus, one of them was crying. The men were yelling, "They shot my nigga. They killed my nigga." And the men demanded, "Who is the motherfucker on the bus from Bond Hill that killed my nigga last night?"

{¶ 7} Jones testified that she did not continue driving because the men had a gun. She said, "I mean, I didn't know if they were going to start shooting us or what. I just froze. I panicked. I was very scared." Jones felt that if she had moved the bus, "they were going to start shooting."

{¶ 8} Betty Davis, a bus passenger, testified that she felt she could not get off the bus: "I felt in the moment that had I done that, that would have created another reaction."

{¶ 9} After a few minutes, the two men left the bus from its rear door. As they exited, one of them pointed the gun at the bus and moved the gun from left to right, like he was "going to spray the bus" with gunfire.

{¶ 10} Jones drove the bus a few blocks and stopped to wait for police. Jones suffered chest pains and breathing difficulty, so she was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

{¶ 11} Cincinnati Police Officer Phillip Penn, a resource officer for Mincy's high school, identified Mincy from the bus's videotape of the incident. Penn testified that he went to Mincy's home, where he saw, on the wall of his bedroom in graffiti, "A-1," an Avondale gang sign. Mincy was not at home. Mincy turned himself into police five days later. *Page 4

{¶ 12} At trial, Mincy testified that he had boarded the bus to speak to a girl he knew to be from Bond Hill. Mincy believed that someone from Bond Hill was responsible for his friend Lampkin's death because the shooting had happened in Bond Hill. Mincy testified that as soon as he walked to the rear of the bus, he kept repeating, "Who killed my nigga?" Mincy testified that he was crying, upset, and angry. Mincy admitted that he had never had a conversation directly with the girl "[b]ecause I was upset. I was just yelling."

{¶ 13} Mincy testified that he did not have a gun and did not know if anyone else had a gun. Mincy denied making threats to anyone or stopping anyone from getting off the bus.

{¶ 14} Mincy said that he did not know if anyone else had gotten on the bus when he did. Mincy testified that at some point he had seen the person who had gotten on the bus behind him, and that that person was not Dante Allen. Mincy admitted that he had walked up and down the aisle and that the person was directly behind him. Mincy testified that he was not aware of the person behind him until he turned around and got off the bus.

{¶ 15} Mincy admitted that he had not paid a fare and that he had intended to get off the bus where he had gotten on.

Motion for a New Trial
{¶ 16} Mincy's first and second assignments of error challenge the trial court's denial of his motion for a new trial following what he calls a "non-evidentiary" hearing. The decision granting or denying a motion for a new trial, and the decision whether to hold an evidentiary hearing on the motion, are committed to the broad discretion of the *Page 5 trial court.1 Unless the trial court's decision is unreasonable, arbitrary, or unconscionable, a reviewing court should not disturb it on appeal.2

{¶ 17} Mincy argues that Smith's statement to police constituted a surprise within the meaning of Crim.R. 33(A)(3), as well as newly discovered evidence within the meaning of Crim.R. 33(A)(6), and that, therefore, he was entitled to a new trial.

{¶ 18} Under Crim.R. 33(A)(3), a new trial may be granted on the ground of "surprise which ordinary prudence could not have guarded against." To warrant a new trial, the claimed surprise must have materially affected the defendant's substantial rights.3

{¶ 19} Crim.R 33(A)(6) allows a new trial to be granted on the ground of newly discovered evidence, where the defendant shows that the new evidence (1) discloses a strong probability that it will change the result if a new trial is granted, (2) has been discovered since the trial, (3) could not in the exercise of due diligence been discovered before the trial, (4) is material to the issues, (5) is not merely cumulative to former evidence, and (6) does not merely impeach or contradict the former evidence.4

{¶ 20} In this case, there is no dispute that Smith's statement to police had occurred after Mincy's trial and that it could not have been discovered prior to trial. But the statement did not materially affect Mincy's substantial rights or create a "strong probability" that a new trial would have resulted in his acquittal. *Page 6

{¶ 21} During Smith's interview with police, he admitted that he had been upset and angry about his friend Lampkin's murder. Smith admitted that he had gotten on the bus with Mincy, that Mincy had boarded before he did, and that Mincy was standing in front of him in the aisle when they asked who on the bus was from Bond Hill. Smith admitted that he and Mincy had walked to the back of the bus and exited through the back door.

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Bluebook (online)
2007 Ohio 1316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mincy-unpublished-decision-3-23-2007-ohioctapp-2007.