State v. Phillips

2012 Ohio 473
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided February 9, 2012·No. 96329·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

Court of Appeals of Ohio

EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION No. 96329

STATE OF OHIO

PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE

vs.

KENNY PHILLIPS

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT

JUDGMENT:

AFFIRMED IN PART;

REVERSED IN PART;

REMANDED

Criminal Appeal from the

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-481840

BEFORE: Rocco, J., Boyle, P.J., and Keough, J.

RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: February 9, 2012

-i-

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT

Matthew M. Nee, The Law Offices of Matthew M. Nee David H. Brown, David H. Brown, LLC Edwin J. Vargas, The Vargas Law Firm Co., LPA 1956 West 25th Street, Suite 302 Cleveland, Ohio 44113

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE

William D. Mason Cuyahoga County Prosecutor

BY: Kristen L. Sobieski Assistant Prosecuting Attorney The Justice Center 1200 Ontario Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113

KENNETH A. ROCCO, J.:

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant Kenny Phillips appeals from his convictions and sentence following a jury trial. The jury found Phillips guilty of multiple counts of attempted murder, felonious assault, and attempted felonious assault, and two counts of inducing panic. The jury also found Phillips guilty of firearm specifications included in the attempted murder, felonious assault, and attempted felonious assault counts. The trial court sentenced Phillips to 92 years incarceration plus a mandatory five-year period of postrelease control.

{¶ 2} Phillips presents six assignment of error. He asserts his convictions for attempted murder and felonious assault are against the manifest weight of the evidence, his convictions for attempted murder and felonious assault of a police officer are not supported by sufficient evidence, his sentence amounts to duplicative punishment with respect to the firearms specifications and attempted murder and felonious assault convictions, his convictions for inducing panic are misdemeanors rather than felonies, the state’s questions on his juvenile record deprived him of a fair trial, and his sentence is grossly disproportionate.

{¶ 3} Upon a review of the record, this court finds Phillips’s third and fourth assignments of error have merit. We affirm Phillips’s convictions in part, reverse his convictions in part, vacate his sentence, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

{¶ 4} Phillips’s convictions resulted from an early morning incident on May 26, 2006 at the intersection of East 55th Street, and Kinsman and Woodland Avenues. Phillips, Michael Sutton, Deante Creel, and Akeem Tidmore were together in a tan Chevrolet Caprice heading southbound on East 55th Street. The Chevrolet was “boxy” and had “84” printed on its side (“Chevy 84”). Officers Michael Keane and Daniel Lentz were heading northbound on East 55th Street when Keane observed Chevy 84 make a reckless u-turn. Keane, weaving through traffic to catch up, saw Chevy 84 turn right and head east on Woodland.

{¶ 5} Keane and Lentz heard a gunshot as they turned right on Woodland. They saw Chevy 84 moving alongside a Lincoln Mark VIII (“Lincoln”). Keane and Lentz heard more gunshots and saw muzzle flashes between Chevy 84’s passenger side and the Lincoln’s left side. Lentz described the muzzle flashes as cone-shaped strobing, meaning the gunshots were coming from Chevy 84.

{¶ 6} Keane activated his lights and siren and pursued Chevy 84. Chevy 84 first slowed down, but accelerated and turned south on East 65th Street. Keane followed Chevy 84. As Chevy 84 pulled over, four passengers exited and ran. Keane chased the driver, Michael Sutton, and took him into custody.

{¶ 7} Lentz saw two males exit the passenger side. They both wore white t-shirts and carried handguns. The two men ran toward a nearby house. A third male, dressed in black, also exited the passenger side and ran in a different direction.

{¶ 8} Since they carried handguns, Lentz followed the first two men behind the house. When attempting to retrieve his flashlight, Lentz heard three gunshots from two different caliber weapons, and observed strobing and star-patterned muzzle flashes. He turned back and nearly collided with one of the men, who took off running. As Lentz chased him, Lentz saw him throw something into a field. Lentz tackled the man, Deante Creel, and took him into custody.

{¶ 9} Meanwhile, Officer Keane also heard gunshots coming from the direction where Lentz chased the two men. He saw Lentz tackle Creel. Seeing Lentz had Creel under control, Keane continued searching for the other two men who exited from Chevy 84.

{¶ 10} Keane saw a man running on East 61st or 63rd Street. Keane exited his cruiser and chased the man until Keane fell and tore his calf muscle. Lentz saw Keane fall to the ground, and thought Keane was shot. After a zone car picked up Creel, Lentz chased and apprehended the man, Kenny Phillips, as he attempted a return to Chevy 84.

{¶ 11} Both Phillips and Creel wore light-colored shirts at the time of their arrest.

A zone car picked up the fourth male, Akeen Tidmore, who wore dark clothing.

{¶ 12} As a result of the shooting, Kenneth Tolbert, the driver of the Lincoln, suffered paralysis to one side of his face from a gunshot wound to the head. Christopher Lovelady, who was behind Kenneth, suffered blindness to one eye from a gunshot wound to the head. Kevin Tolbert, the front passenger, and Leonard Brown, seated in the back passenger seat, were not injured. Bullet holes were located on the Lincoln’s left side.

{¶ 13} Phillips’s hands and the passenger door window area of Chevy 84 tested positive for gunshot residue. Phillips denied, however, having a weapon when exiting Chevy 84. The hands of Creel, Sutton, and Tidmore all tested negative.

{¶ 14} Phillips, Creel, and Sutton collectively maintained that a gold car pulled up beside the black Lincoln, and an arm exited the gold car’s window and fired gunshots into the Lincoln. According to them, the Lincoln stopped, the gold car left, and Chevy 84 pulled to the side to allow the police to chase after the gold car. Officers Keane and

Lentz both testified, however, that they did not follow the gold car because the muzzle flashes came from Chevy 84.

{¶ 15} At the conclusion of the both the state’s and Phillips’s case, the defense moved for acquittal pursuant to Crim.R. 29(A). The trial court denied Phillips’s motions.

{¶ 16} On June 7, 2007, the jury found appellant not guilty of Counts 13 and 14, attempted aggravated murder, Count 15, attempted murder, and Count 21, resisting arrest. The jury found him guilty of the remaining charges. On June 28, 2007, the trial court sentenced appellant to a total of 92 years in prison and reserved judgment on restitution.

{¶ 17} Appellant appealed his convictions and sentence to this court. We dismissed for lack of a final, appealable order because the judgment of conviction did not include restitution. State v. Phillips, 8th Dist. No. 90124, 2008-Ohio-5101, 2008 WL 4438650, appeal not allowed by 120 Ohio St.3d 1527, 2009-Ohio-614, 901 N.E.2d 246. Upon remand, the trial court resolved the matter of restitution.

{¶ 18} Appellant appeals his convictions and sentence and presents six assignments of error for our review:

{¶ 19} “I. Finding Mr. Phillips guilty of attempted murder and felonious assault is against the manifest weight of the evidence.

{¶ 20} II. The trial court’s denying Mr. Phillips’s motion for acquittal violated Mr. Phillips’s due process rights because the evidence is insufficient to support a guilty verdict for attempted murder of and felonious assault against Patrolman Daniel Lentz.

{¶ 21} III. Improperly sentencing Mr. Phillips violated his due process rights by subjecting him to duplicative punishment with respect to: firearms specifications that should have been merged as part of the same transaction or occurrence; allied offenses of similar import, namely attempted murder and felonious assault; and by combining the seven-year firearm specification for discharging a firearm at a police officer with other firearm specifications.

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