State v. Mitchell

2013 Ohio 3696
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in State v. Mitchell. Read the opinion of the Court — 2012 Ohio 3722
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided August 26, 2013·No. 2013CA00030·Published

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Mitchell, 2013-Ohio-3696.]

COURT OF APPEALS STARK COUNTY, OHIO FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

JUDGES: STATE OF OHIO : Hon. W. Scott Gwin, P.J. : Hon. John W. Wise, J. Plaintiff-Appellee : Hon. Craig R. Baldwin, J. : -vs- : : Case No. 2013CA00030 MARLON EUGENE MITCHELL : : Defendant-Appellant : O P I N I ON

CHARACTER OF PROCEEDING: Criminal appeal from the Stark County Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 2012- CR-1277

JUDGMENT: Affirmed

DATE OF JUDGMENT ENTRY: August 26, 2013

APPEARANCES:

For Plaintiff-Appellee For Defendant-Appellant

JOHN D. FERRERO JACOB WILL Stark County Prosecutor 116 Cleveland Avenue N.W., Ste. 808 BY: KATHLEEN O. TATARSKY Canton, OH 44702 Assistant Prosecuting Attorney 110 Central Plaza South, Ste. 510 Canton, OH 44702 [Cite as State v. Mitchell, 2013-Ohio-3696.]

Gwin, P.J.

{¶1} Appellant Marlon Mitchell [“Mitchell”] appeals from the January 14, 2013

entry of the Stark County Court of Common Pleas convicting and sentencing him after a

jury trial of one count of aggravated robbery, a felony of the first degree, and one count

of aggravated burglary a felony of the first degree.

Facts and Procedural History

{¶2} The charges in the case at bar stem from a home invasion robbery and

burglary by Mitchell and another unidentified person at the apartment of Dawn Turpin in

the early morning hours of June 24, 2012.

{¶3} On June 24, 2012 about 1:00 a.m., Turpin was returning to her apartment

from her daughter's house. Aware of the lateness of the hour, she looked around as she

pulled into the driveway of the apartment building heading to the parking ramp. She saw

two young men cross Market Avenue and head to the front stairs, which marked the

apartment entryway. She parked her car without incident, placed the two baskets of

newly washed clothes she had in a shopping cart, got on the elevator and pressed

seven for her floor.

{¶4} The elevator stopped on the first floor and the two young men she had

seen crossing the street got on. One stood beside her and the other one was closer to

the elevator door. The taller one was darker skinned wearing a dark ball cap and dark

clothes. The shorter one wore a white scarf around his neck and tan boots. Turpin tried

to make some small talk, asking them how they were doing and what floor did they

want. The one beside her pushed the button for floor five. They got off on five and when Stark County, Case No. 2013CA00030 3

Turpin told them to "take it easy," they nodded. In all, Turpin spent about three minutes

with the two males on the elevator.

{¶5} Turpin continued her ride to floor seven, got off with her shopping cart

filled with laundered clothes, unlocked her door and threw down her keys, purse and

cell phone; she had to use the bathroom. While in the bathroom, she heard a loud

noise; then she heard a second one. She opened the bathroom door and encountered

the same two young men; one now wearing the white scarf around his face holding a

gun with a silencer on it and the other one in her bedroom. She threw up her hands

saying "oh no." The one holding the gun told her to get down. Turpin asked him, "[W]hat

do you want? The young man said, "you're with the African kid...where are the

Africans."

{¶6} At first, she did not know what they were talking about, but then it hit her -

two Africans lived at the end of the hall, opposite side, in Apartment 704. Turpin told

them, "there's some Africans down the hall." The man in the bedroom came out, telling

his partner, "let her live" and they exited the apartment.

{¶7} Several items of jewelry and her cell phone having been stolen by the

intruders, Turpin grabbed her purse and keys and ran down seven flights of stairs to her

car. She went to her friend's house and called 9-1-1. Meanwhile, her neighbor, Rodney

Bryant, heard the loud banging and Turpin screaming and called 9-1-1. About three

days after the robbery and burglary, Bryant was talking with Tarvia Smith, aka

"Chicago" who lived with the two African men who occupied Unit 704. She mentioned

that she might know the name of one of the men involved in the crimes, Marlon Mitchell.

She used Bryant's laptop computer and showed him a picture of Mitchell on his Stark County, Case No. 2013CA00030 4

Facebook page, Bryant showed the Facebook page with the picture of Mitchell to

Turpin. Turpin looked at the Facebook photo for a few minutes and said she was 100

percent sure that Mitchell was one of the young men who broke into her apartment.

Bryant told her his name - Marlon Mitchell.

{¶8} Turpin told Detective Pileggi of the Canton Police Department about the

Facebook picture and that a possible suspect was Marlon Mitchell. Pileggi, however,

never saw the Facebook picture. Pileggi put the name “Marlon Mitchell” into his

computer system and verified that it was Mitchell. He then put together a photo line-up

using a software system called OLEG [Ohio Law Enforcement Guide]. OLEG pulled up

a picture of Mitchell's driver's license. From that, he was able to assemble five other

photos that closely matched Mitchell in skin color, eye color, height, weight and other

characteristics. He assembled six photos including Mitchell.

{¶9} On July 6, 2012, Turpin viewed the photo lineup of the six photos

prepared by Pileggi. Pileggi followed the line up procedure mandated by R.C. 2933.83,

including the use of ten shuffled, identical unmarked manila folders, four of which were

blank. A “blind administrator,” Detective Richard Harbarger, administered the lineup at

her apartment. Harbarger did not know who the suspect was and told Turpin the

suspect may or may not be in the photos. Turpin looked at the photos two times and

assigned Mitchell, whose photo was in folder 3, a rating of 5 both times. On a scale of 1

to 5, one being certain it is not the perpetrator and five being that it is the perpetrator,

Turpin rated Mitchell a five. Harbarger reported the findings to Detective Pileggi and

also reported that there was some confusion as Turpin thought both suspects were in

the lineup and assigned a number 3 to another photo for the suspect with the gun. On Stark County, Case No. 2013CA00030 5

cross-examination, Pileggi agreed that the other five individuals in the photo lineup were

not involved in the incident at Turpin's residence.

{¶10} Mitchell was arrested and interviewed by Pileggi. Mitchell denied any

involvement in the crime. Pileggi, however, found it strange that when he asked Mitchell

why the victim would identify him, Mitchell replied by saying, "she has the wrong

person." When asked how he knew the victim was a woman, Mitchell responded that

she contacted him on his Facebook page asking him why he did that to her. Turpin

denied ever using Facebook or even owning a computer.

{¶11} While in the Stark County Jail awaiting trial, Mitchell made a telephone call

to seventeen-year-old Brittany Ann Slovick. Slovick had been a friend of Mitchell's for

about a year and a half and had a romantic relationship with him. She knew him by the

monikers "King" or "Peter Pan.” On August 14, 2012, Mitchell called Slovick on her

mother's cell phone and thirty seconds of the call was played for the jury. During the

conversation, Slovick asked Mitchell why he was in jail. Mitchell responded saying "DJ

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

State v. Mitchell, 2013 Ohio 3696 (Ohio Ct. App. 2013).

2013 Ohio 3696 (State v. Mitchell) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

McDaniel v. Brown
558 U.S. 120 (Supreme Court, 2010)
Glasser v. United States
315 U.S. 60 (Supreme Court, 1942)
Foster v. California
394 U.S. 440 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Manson v. Brathwaite
432 U.S. 98 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Tibbs v. Florida
457 U.S. 31 (Supreme Court, 1982)
Marshall v. Lonberger
459 U.S. 422 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Ornelas v. United States
517 U.S. 690 (Supreme Court, 1996)
United States v. Arvizu
534 U.S. 266 (Supreme Court, 2002)
State v. Hunter
2011 Ohio 6524 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2011)
State v. Fry
2010 Ohio 1017 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2010)
State v. Long
713 N.E.2d 1 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1998)
State v. Medcalf
675 N.E.2d 1268 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1996)
State v. Martin
485 N.E.2d 717 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. McNamara
707 N.E.2d 539 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1997)
State v. Caldwell
607 N.E.2d 1096 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1992)
State v. Woullard
814 N.E.2d 964 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2004)
State v. Pallai, 07 Ma 198 (12-10-2008)
2008 Ohio 6635 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
State v. Gore
722 N.E.2d 125 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1999)
Marcoguiseppe v. State
151 N.E. 182 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1926)