State v. Richards

2012 Ohio 1115
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided March 15, 2012·No. 2011-CA-00074·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS

LICKING COUNTY, OHIO

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

JUDGES:

STATE OF OHIO : Hon. W. Scott Gwin, P.J.

: Hon. John W. Wise, J.

Plaintiff-Appellee : Hon. Julie A. Edwards, J.

:

-vs- :

: Case No. 2011-CA-00074 STEPHEN J. RICHARDS :

:

Defendant-Appellant : OPINION

CHARACTER OF PROCEEDING: Criminal appeal from the Licking County Court of Common Pleas, Case No.

2010CR360

JUDGMENT: Affirmed in part, vacated in part and Remanded

DATE OF JUDGMENT ENTRY: March 15, 2012

APPEARANCES: For Plaintiff-Appellee For Defendant-Appellant

KENNETH OSWALT Licking County Prosecutor WILLIAM T. CRAMER BY: TRACEY VAN WINKLE 470 Olde Worthington Rd., Ste. 200 20 South Second St., 4th Fl. Westerville, OH 43082 Newark, OH 43055

Gwin, P.J.

{1} Defendant-appellant Stephen Richards was accused of murdering his father, Chris Richards, and hiding the body in a burn pit in the backyard of his father's home. As a result, appellant was charged with felony-murder (R.C. 2903.02(B)) based on a predicate felony offense of felonious assault (R.C. 2903.11) and gross abuse of a corpse (R.C. 2927.01(B)).

{2} Chris’ second wife, Tanya Richards testified that they owned the property at 49 and 45 Madison Avenue in Newark. In June 2010, her daughter Carrie Warner lived at 49 Madison with her children and her fiancé Carl Meade. Chris and Tanya visited the houses in Newark and the yard was out of control, so Chris went back on Wednesday, June 23, to start cleaning up the yard.

{3} On Friday, Carrie awoke around 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. and found Carl playing a video game, Chris asleep on the couch, and Stephen asleep on the floor. Carl had a broken jaw from an unrelated incident and was taking medication and not sleeping well, so he was up all night.

{4} When dinner was ready Friday night, Carrie looked around for Chris, but could not find him. The last time Tanya spoke with Chris was by cellular telephone that day around 1:30 p.m. Tanya did not hear from Chris on Saturday. She tried to call him a couple times, but could not reach him. Later on Saturday, she called Carrie to see if she had seen Chris. Tanya came to Newark on Saturday. Sunday she called the police to report a missing person.

{5} Detectives became involved about six days after Chris went missing.

Detectives went to the 49 Madison location and spoke with the residents. They

searched the property and immediately noticed the smell of a dead animal when they walked through the backyard. They eventually located the source of the smell in the burn pit.

{6} In the burn pit, they found Chris's body wrapped in a blue tarp that was tied up with plastic clothesline and some braided rope. He was lying face down, covered with debris. Several pieces of brick were found wrapped in the tarp with the body. There was a bottle of Tylenol with codeine in a pocket and the bottle indicated that it was a prescription for Chris.

{7} The autopsy revealed blunt force trauma to the skull in a shape that was consistent with the bricks found at the scene. There were also two cutting injuries to the victim's neck. One cut ran diagonally to the front of the neck and was relatively superficial. A deeper cut injury occurred on the left side and back of the decedent’s neck. The victim was alive when the injuries to the neck were inflicted. According to the coroner, the blow to the head would have been fatal and probably occurred while the victim's head was stationary, either lying on the ground or against a hard object like a fence.

{8} In his first interview with the police, appellant confessed that his father came after him with a knife and he had to punch him and hit him. Appellant said that his father wanted him to buy some pain pills, but he would not. They were also arguing about some past things, but appellant did not elaborate. Appellant said he was using a knife to cut some weeds and he set it down on the jungle gym. The decedent picked up the knife and came at him. Appellant said that afterwards he panicked, and wrapped the body up in a tarp and put it into the fire pit.

{9} After the autopsy, the detectives re-interviewed appellant. Appellant indicated that he believed that the decedent would have taken appellant’s life and that really hurt him. Appellant recalled that the decedent came at him with the knife up in the air. Appellant was cut when he blocked the knife. He thought that he put the decedent in a chokehold. They struggled a bit more, then the decedent took appellant to the ground Appellant told the police that he felt like his life was at risk. After a few minutes, appellant said he did not want to talk about it anymore, but they could check back with him in a few days.

{10} At trial, appellant argued that he was acting under a sudden passion or in a sudden fit of rage brought on by serious provocation. As a result, the court instructed the jury on the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter (R.C. 2903.04(A)) based on a predicate felony offense of aggravated assault (RC. 2903.12).

{11} The jury rejected the lesser offense and found appellant guilty as charged.

Appellant was sentenced to 15 years to life for murder and a consecutive one-year term for abuse of a corpse, for a total of 16 years to life.

{12} Appellant raises four Assignments of Error, {13} “I. THE TRIAL COURT VIOLATED APPELLANT'S RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND SECTION 16, ARTICLE I, OF THE OHIO CONSTITUTION BY EXCLUDING EVIDENCE OF THE VICTIM'S VIOLENT CHARACTER.

{14} “II. THE TRIAL COURT VIOLATED APPELLANT'S RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND SECTION 16, ARTICLE I,

OF THE OHIO CONSTITUTION BY EXCLUDING EVIDENCE OF THE VICTIM'S DRUG USE.

{15} “III. THE CUMULATIVE EFFECT OF THE FOREGOING ERRORS DEPRIVED APPELLANT OF HIS RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS AND A FAIR TRIAL UNDER THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND SECTION 16, ARTICLE I, OF THE OHIO CONSTITUTION.

{16} “IV. THE TRIAL COURT VIOLATED R.C. 2967.28 BY IMPOSING THREE YEARS OF POST-RELEASE CONTROL AT SENTENCING ON COUNT TWO.”

I.

{17} In his first assignment of error, appellant maintains that the trial court committed error in refusing to permit him to admit certain forms of character evidence associated with the victim, ostensibly to show that the victim was the first aggressor and the appellant’s state of mind.

{18} Appellant’s argument concerns two witnesses: Tanya Richards, the victim’s widow and appellant’s stepmother, who testified as a fact-witness for the prosecution; and Carolyn Wilson, the appellant’s maternal grandmother, who did not testify, but whose testimony was proffered by the defense.

{19} As part of its case in chief, the prosecution presented the testimony of Tanya Richards. Mrs. Richards testified as a fact witness. Appellant agrees that at no time did the prosecution seek to present her as a character witness for any purpose. However, on cross-examination appellant’s defense counsel sought to question her regarding her opinion with respect to her deceased husband’s character trait for peacefulness. The trial court decided that in the absence of some evidence that

appellant had been provoked, or that appellant was acting in self-defense, that the admission of character evidence was premature and this line of questioning was aborted.

{20} The state subsequently admitted appellant’s statements to the police in which appellant claimed the decedent became angry and that appellant believed that the decedent would have taken his life and that really hurt him. Appellant argues that he should have been allowed to recall Tanya to the witness stand to ask her about the decedent's violent character. Specifically, after the prosecution rested, defense counsel proffered the testimony of Tanya Richards concerning the victim's character.

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