State v. Perkins

2019 Ohio 2049
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided May 24, 2019·No. S-18-010·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Perkins, 2019-Ohio-2049.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT SANDUSKY COUNTY

State of Ohio Court of Appeals No. S-18-010

Appellee Trial Court No. 17CR524

v.

Daren M. Perkins DECISION AND JUDGMENT

Appellant Decided: May 24, 2019

*****

Timothy Braun, Sandusky County Prosecuting Attorney, and Mark E. Mulligan, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

James H. Ellis III, for appellant.

MAYLE, P.J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Daren M. Perkins, appeals the December 13, 2017

judgment of the Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas, convicting him of illegal

possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs and sentencing him to a prison term of

36 months. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. I. Background

{¶ 2} On May 13, 2017, Officer Jeffrey Bauer, of the Clyde Police Department,

observed Daren Perkins operating a motor vehicle. Officer Bauer knew Perkins and was

aware that his driver’s license was suspended, so he initiated a traffic stop. He issued

Perkins a citation and told him that he would not be able to drive the vehicle to another

location. Perkins asked if he could bring another licensed driver to the location to drive

the vehicle, and Officer Bauer told him that he could. Perkins did not have a phone, so

he left on foot to find someone.

{¶ 3} While Perkins was away trying to find another licensed driver, dispatch

called a tow company to remove the vehicle from the roadway. Officer Bauer, and other

officers who were on the scene to assist him, began an inventory search of the vehicle.

During that search, they discovered items that made them suspect that the vehicle was

being used as a rolling methamphetamine lab: a plastic Orange Crush bottle with white

residue, a plastic Mountain Dew bottle with white residue and a coffee filter twisted up

inside, and a clear plastic bottle with sludge material. They enlisted the help of Special

Agent Andrew Webb of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s (“BCI”) clandestine

drug lab and marijuana suppression unit.

{¶ 4} BCI tested the items found in the vehicle. The Mountain Dew bottle tested

positive for the presence of hydrogen chloride acid, and the clear plastic bottle containing

sludge material was consistent with the chemical waste produced when manufacturing

methamphetamine and tested positive for the presence of ammonia gas. There was also

2. evidence of lithium extracted from a lithium battery. While meth itself was not found in

the vehicle, the combination of these items and the presence of these chemicals

confirmed for investigators their suspicions that meth was being produced in the vehicle.

{¶ 5} Perkins was charged with illegal possession of chemicals for the

manufacture of drugs, a violation of R.C. 2925.041(A). Following a jury trial—at which

Perkins represented himself with a lawyer present for consultation—Perkins was

convicted. He was immediately sentenced to a prison term of 36 months. He appealed

and assigns the following errors for our review:

A. APPELLANT WAS DENIED EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF

COUNSEL.

B. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED BY FAILING TO COMPLY

WITH APPLICABLE STATUTES IN SENTENCING THE APPELLANT.

II. Law and Analysis

{¶ 6} In his first assignment of error, Perkins argues that trial counsel was

ineffective for failing to file a motion to suppress evidence collected during the inventory

search of his vehicle. In his second assignment of error, he argues that the trial court

failed to comply with applicable sentencing statutes because it neglected to consider R.C.

2929.11 and 2929.12 in fashioning his sentence. We consider each of these assignments

in turn.

3. A. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

{¶ 7} Officer Bauer told Perkins that he could bring a licensed driver to the scene

to drive his vehicle to another location. Nevertheless, while Perkins was in the process of

looking for someone to drive his car, a tow truck was summoned, leading officers to

conduct an inventory search of the vehicle. It was during this search that the

incriminating items were discovered. Perkins complains that there was no additional

criminal activity justifying a search of the vehicle, there was no reason to impound the

vehicle given that it was anticipated that he would be returning with a licensed driver, and

the vehicle was not, in fact, impounded. He, therefore, claims in his first assignment of

error that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a motion to suppress the evidence

discovered during the inventory search.

{¶ 8} In response, the state argues only that Perkins’s ineffective-assistance claim

fails because he represented himself at trial. It acknowledges that Perkins was appointed

an attorney on May 15, 2017, a second attorney on June 29, 2017, and a third attorney on

October 10, 2017, but it maintains that Perkins’s third attorney acted merely in a “standby

capacity” at trial while Perkins represented himself.

{¶ 9} In order to prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, an

appellant must show that counsel’s conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the

adversarial process that the trial court cannot be relied on as having produced a just

result. State v. Shuttlesworth, 104 Ohio App.3d 281, 287, 661 N.E.2d 817 (7th

Dist.1995). To establish ineffective assistance of counsel, an appellant must show

4. “(1) deficient performance of counsel, i.e., performance falling below an objective

standard of reasonable representation, and (2) prejudice, i.e., a reasonable probability

that, but for counsel’s errors, the proceeding’s result would have been different.” State v.

Hale, 119 Ohio St.3d 118, 2008-Ohio-3426, 892 N.E.2d 864, ¶ 204, citing Strickland v.

Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). “A

reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the

outcome.” State v. Sanders, 94 Ohio St.3d 150, 151, 761 N.E.2d 18 (2002).

{¶ 10} “The ‘failure to file a suppression motion does not constitute per se

ineffective assistance of counsel.’” State v. Spaulding, 151 Ohio St.3d 378, 2016-Ohio-

8126, 89 N.E.3d 554, ¶ 94, quoting Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365, 384, 106

S.Ct. 2574, 91 L.Ed.2d 305 (1986). Rather, the ordinary two-part Strickland analysis

applies, requiring an appellant to prove both that there was a basis to suppress the

evidence in question and that there was a reasonable probability that the result of the

proceeding would have been different had the evidence been suppressed. Id. See also

State v. Carter, 2017-Ohio-7501, 96 N.E.3d 1046, ¶ 78 (7th Dist.) (recognizing that

where a defendant claims error in trial counsel’s failure to file suppression motion, he or

she must prove that there was valid ground to suppress the evidence and that there is a

reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different had the

evidence been suppressed).

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