State v. Seiber

564 N.E.2d 408, 56 Ohio St. 3d 4, 1990 Ohio LEXIS 1512
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1990
DocketNo. 89-1391
StatusPublished
Cited by265 cases

This text of 564 N.E.2d 408 (State v. Seiber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Seiber, 564 N.E.2d 408, 56 Ohio St. 3d 4, 1990 Ohio LEXIS 1512 (Ohio 1990).

Opinion

Alice Robie Resnick, J.

We have reviewed appellant’s twenty-one propositions of law, independently assessed the evidence relating to the death sentence, balanced the aggravating circumstances against the mitigating factors, and reviewed the proportionality of the sentence to those imposed in similar cases. As a result, we affirm the convictions and sentence of death.

I

Appropriateness of Death Penalty

In his initial proposition of law, appellant argues that the death penalty is not appropriate in his case. Appellant asserts that we should conclude, after independently assessing the case under R.C. 2929.05, that the aggravating circumstances do not outweigh the mitigating factors.

The evidence supports the aggravating circumstances the jury found appellant guilty of committing, i.e., the kidnapping of Alvie and Louis Schoenberger and Stanton Norris. Appellant deliberately returned to the bar, approximately forty minutes to an hour after he had left, but now armed and in the company of a person armed with a shotgun; prevented anyone from leaving; and repeatedly threatened to kill the Schoenbergers, forcing them to lie on the floor. Appellant then roamed the bar looking for their friends. He terrorized the Schoenbergers and others for approximately twenty to forty minutes and shot Norris when Norris refused to obey his order to get on the floor. Appellant continued his rampage by chasing Louis and generally threatening everyone. The ordeal ended only after a policeman, after warning appellant to drop his gun, shot him. This evidence proved a calculated, prolonged, and unprovoked kidnapping of at least three persons, together with continued threats of violence and death, in the course of which appellant purposefully killed Norris.

Appellant established in mitigation that he had lifelong health, mental and adjustment problems. When appellant was eleven years old, a truck hit him and he suffered a “cerebral contusion,” spending five days in a hospital. In April to June 1963, and from November 1964 to September 1965, appellant was a patient at Columbus State Hospital. Doctors diagnosed him as suffering from an adjustment reaction to adolescence. In June 1966, appellant joined the United States Army and served in Vietnam. In April 1968, following exhibitions of rage and [7]*7violence, the army found appellant unfit for further military service. An army medical board diagnosed appellant in these words: “[p]sychotic reaction, paranoid type, intermittent and recurrent, * * * manifested by uncontrolled anxiety and rage, by feelings of being in a hostile, persecuting world and by terrible and total distrust of anyone.”

Following his Army discharge, appellant joined a motorcycle gang, the Outlaws, wandered around the country, and lived a troubled, marginal life. At times, Veterans Administration (“VA”) and other hospitals treated appellant. In September 1968, a Columbus State Hospital diagnosis concluded he was a schizophrenic, paranoid type. In October 1968, a VA hospital diagnosis noted a schizophrenic reaction, chronic undifferentiated type. In April 1970, after being hit in the head with a wrench, appellant was hospitalized for a scalp laceration. In 1983, following an automobile accident, he was hospitalized several weeks for head injuries and several broken bones. In April 1984, following a VA psychiatric consultation, appellant was diagnosed as having an anti-social personality disorder. In June 1984, VA officials believed that appellant had a psychopathic personality structure and at times lapsed into paranoid ideation with rapid recovery, and that appellant was “vulnerable to even slight stressors, which may trigger panic attacks and possible psychotic episodes.”

Two mental health professionals testified at appellant’s mitigation hearing. Sheila Porter, a psychiatric social worker, noted that appellant had consistent difficulty with school expulsions, fighting, and assaultive behavior in childhood. Since childhood, appellant had suffered “intermittent lapses into delusional paranoid ideation representing brief psychotic episodes.” Porter believed that if appellant, at the Village Lounge,, “were in one of these episodes of psychotic thinking and paranoid ideation that he would lack the capacity to conform his behavior to the requirements of the law.” However, appellant related a fictionalized account of the events at the Village Lounge to Porter, who knew little of what actually happened there. Porter never testified that appellant actually was in a psychotic episode at the time of the offense.

Dr. Bruce Goldsmith, a clinical psychologist, knew nothing of the actual events at the Village Lounge, other than what he had read in the newspaper. Appellant told Goldsmith he did not remember anything about that night. Goldsmith reviewed appellant’s medical history, interviewed him, and also gave him various psychological tests. Appellant displayed excellent intelligence, ability to concentrate and short-term memory, and was quite adept at higher level abstract thinking. Goldsmith detected that appellant was guarded, evasive, and exhibited selective memory. When interviewed, appellant showed no paranoia, delusions, or thought insertion (outside persons controlling him). Organic brain damage was a distinct possibility. Appellant viewed the world as a hostile, threatening, dog-eat-dog world, thereby reflecting consistent antisocial thinking. During the interview, appellant exhibited some signs of psychotic thinking, but he recovered quickly and within moments was back on track thinking rationally. Goldsmith concluded: “Diagnostically, I believe the most salient feature of Mr. Seiber is unquestionably his antisocial personality disorder. This disorder has been evident since at least 1963 when he was 15 years old. He has a long history of continuous antisocial [8]*8behavior, which has included violent acting-out, inability to sustain consistent work behavior, * * * failure to accept social norms, with respect to lawful behavior * * * and poor impulse control.”

Goldsmith also believed that appellant suffered from paranoid tendencies and did not trust anybody; and that appellant had poor abilities to cope with stress and tended to decompensate to psychotic proportions for brief periods of time. Because of appellant’s ingrained anti-social personality disorder, Goldsmith concluded that appellant lacked substantial capacity to conform his behavior to legal requirements.

At trial, appellant’s mother testified on his behalf and described his life, frequent hospitalizations, and family history. Appellant did not hold steady employment, but he did receive a VA disability pension. Since his county jail incarceration in May 1985, he did not have any disciplinary infractions.

In considering possible mitigating factors, nothing in the nature or circumstances of the offense was mitigating. No one threatened or assaulted appellant during his initial visit to the bar that night. After appellant left the bar, he obtained a firearm, and accompanied by an armed accomplice returned to avenge himself over a presumed affront. Upon his return, he immediately acted violently, terrorized various patrons, and ignored the rights of everyone else in the bar.

Appellant’s history presents some mitigating features, especially his lifelong health and mental problems; however, his character and background are not mitigating.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
564 N.E.2d 408, 56 Ohio St. 3d 4, 1990 Ohio LEXIS 1512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-seiber-ohio-1990.