State v. Small

2011 Ohio 4086
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided August 16, 2011·No. 10CAA110088·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS

DELAWARE COUNTY, OHIO

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

STATE OF OHIO JUDGES:

Hon. William B. Hoffman, P.J.

Plaintiff-Appellee Hon. Sheila G. Farmer, J.

Hon. Patricia A. Delaney, J.

-vs-

Case No. 10CAA110088

DEJUAN L. SMALL

Defendant-Appellant OPINION

CHARACTER OF PROCEEDING: Appeal from the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 10CRI040203

JUDGMENT: Affirmed in part; reversed in part; and remanded

DATE OF JUDGMENT ENTRY: August 16, 2011

APPEARANCES:

For Plaintiff-Appellee For Defendant-Appellant

CAROL HAMILTON O'BRIEN WILLIAM T. CRAMER Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney 470 Olde Worthington Road, Suite 200 Westerville, Ohio 43082

DOUGLAS DUMOLT Assistant Prosecuting Attorney 140 N. Sandusky St., 3rd Floor Delaware, Ohio 43015

Hoffman, P.J.

{¶1} Defendant-appellant DeJuan Small appeals his conviction and sentence entered by Delaware County Court of Common Pleas. Plaintiff-appellee is the State of Ohio.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS AND CASE

{¶2} In November of 2008, Kamal Shehata was involved in a relationship with Jessica Beasley. At the time, Shehata was married with children. When Shehata’s wife learned of the relationship, she and the children moved out of the marital home. Beasley did not know Shehata was married during the relationship, and was upset with him for the deception.

{¶3} On November 24, 2008, Shehata contacted Beasley, whom he knew as “Juju,” asking her if she wanted to “hang out” at his home explaining his wife had moved out. Around 9:00 p.m. that evening, Shehata picked up Beasley to take her back to his house. During the drive, Beasley was texting and talking on the phone a lot. Beasley then asked Shehata to stop at a CVS store for her to use the restroom. Shehata explained they were close to his house if she wanted to wait, but Beasley insisted they stop at the CVS store. Shehata observed Beasley using the telephone while inside the CVS store.

{¶4} At the Shehata residence, Shehata cooked dinner and he and Beasley smoked marijuana. After dinner, they went upstairs to his bedroom. A short time later, Shehata heard a loud explosion downstairs, near the front door. He and Beasley stepped to the bedroom door and saw four men running into the bedroom. All four men had masks on their faces. The men asked about guns and money. The men then

proceeded to take Shehata and Beasley to the bathroom and tie them up. Shehata’s hands and feet were bound with zip ties, and his hands were tied to the shower door. During the incident, one of the men said to Shehata, “You fuck with my family.”

{¶5} The men stole a gun, televisions, computers, cameras and approximately $12,000 in cash from Shehata during the incident. They also took his cell phone and house phone.

{¶6} Shehata telephoned the police, but Beasley told him she did not want to be involved with the police because there was a warrant for her arrest. Shehata called a cab for her. When interviewed by the police, Beasley initially gave them a false name. A detective later examined Beasley’s cell phone which contained messages giving someone directions to Shehata’s house. When confronted with the messages, Beasley confessed she was involved with the robbery.

{¶7} A subpoena of Beasley’s cell phone records led detectives to Appellant.

In exchange for her testimony against Appellant, Beasley entered a plea of guilty to a lesser included offense of kidnapping, and she was sentenced to four years in prison.

{¶8} When questioned by the investigating officers, Appellant claimed to have lost his cell phone, which was actually owned by his stepfather, but admitted to communicating with Beasley on the night in question.

{¶9} At trial herein, Beasley testified she was angry with Shehata after learning of his marriage during their relationship. She testified Appellant’s number was stored in her phone as “nunu”, and on the night in question she texted him back and forth to make sure he was following her to Shehata’s residence in order to facilitate a robbery.

At one point, Appellant lost them, and she had Shehata stop at the CVS store in order to call Appellant.

{¶10} Appellant was indicted on two counts of aggravated burglary, involving threats of physical harm and a deadly weapon, in violation of R.C. 2911.11(A)(1)(2); one count of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, in violation of R.C. 2911.01(A)(1); three counts of kidnapping to facilitate a felony and terrorize a victim, and creating a substantial risk of serious physical harm, in violation of R.C. 2905.01(A)(2)(3) and (B)(2); and a firearm specification. Following a jury trial, Appellant was found guilty on all charges.

{¶11} At sentencing, the trial court merged the sentences on the aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery counts. The court then sentenced Appellant to nine years on the first count of aggravated burglary and a concurrent term of six years on the first count of kidnapping. The court also imposed a consecutive three year term for the firearm specification, a five year term of post-release control and ordered Appellant pay $13,000 in restitution.

{¶12} Appellant now appeals, assigning as error:

{¶13} “I. DEFENDANT’S STATE AND FEDERAL DUE PROCESS RIGHTS TO THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE WERE VIOLATED WHEN ONE OF THE STATE’S WITNESSES TESTIFIED THAT DEFENDANT HAD TO BE TRANSPORTED TO JAIL IN A POLICE CRUISER DURING TRIAL.

{¶14} “II. DEFENDANT’S STATE AND FEDERAL RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS WERE VIOLATED WHEN THE TRIAL COURT DISAPPROVED TRANSITIONAL CONTROL UNDER R.C. 2967.26 AT SENTENCING.

{¶15} “III. DEFENDANT’S STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS TO DUE PROCESS AND PROTECTION FROM DOUBLE JEOPARDY WERE VIOLATED WHEN THE TRIAL COURT IMPOSED SENTENCE ON THE ALLIED OFFENSES OF AGGRAVATED BURGLARY AND KIDNAPPING IN VIOLATION OF R.C. 2941.25.”

I

{¶16} In the first assignment of error, Appellant argues his due process rights were violated when Shehata testified to Appellant being transported to trial in a police cruiser.

{¶17} During the trial of this matter, Shehata failed to comply with a subpoena to testify; therefore, he was kept in jail overnight to ensure his presence to testify the following day. During his testimony, Shehata stated:

{¶18} “Q. Do you see an individual seated at the defense table to my left?

{¶19} “A. I can’t tell, sir. I don’t know.

{¶20} “Q. Right. You can’t tell if that was the person who was there that evening; right?

{¶21} “A. Yes.

{¶22} “Q. Has that man said anything to you about this case since this has started?

{¶23} “A. Yesterday - -

{¶24} “Mr. Boger: Objection, Your Honor.

{¶25} “The Witness: Yesterday - -

{¶26} “The Court: I’ll overrule.

{¶27} “By Mr. Dumolt:

{¶28} “Q. Okay. You can go ahead and answer, if he said anything to you about --

{¶29} “A. Yesterday, I was leaving the courthouse with my handcuffs, you know, he was leaving at the same time. He was threatening me downstairs, ‘Don’t talk’. He was like, ‘Don’t talk.’ The cops was with me. And he was trying to tell me, don’t talk, with the face, you know, the threatening face.

{¶30} “Q. But to the best of your knowledge before yesterday, you had never seen that man?

{¶31} “A. No, sir.”

{¶32} Tr. at 201-202.

{¶33} On cross-examination, Shehata testified:

{¶34} “A. He was like ‘Don’t talk’ and he was looking at me like this. I told the cops - -

{¶35} “Q. So you were in the car?

{¶36} “A. Yes.

{¶37} “Q. You couldn’t hear words?

{¶38} “A. Yeah, but you can read lips.

{¶39} “Q. You could see his mouth moving?

{¶40} “A. Yes, and you could see his face, his eyes, looking at you, trying to tell you, ‘Don’t talk’.

{¶41} “Q. How far away were you, a cruiser?

{¶42} “A. The cruiser, he was in that cruiser and I was in the cruiser next to him.”

{¶43} Tr. at 202-203.

{¶44} Appellant’s counsel moved for a mistrial as a result of the statement, and the trial court denied the same. The following exchange occurred on the record,

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State v. Small, 2011 Ohio 4086 (Ohio Ct. App. 2011).

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