State v. Tolbert

2025 Ohio 4469
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 25, 2025
Docket114748
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 Ohio 4469 (State v. Tolbert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Tolbert, 2025 Ohio 4469 (Ohio Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Tolbert, 2025-Ohio-4469.]

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

STATE OF OHIO, :

Plaintiff-Appellant, : No. 114748 v. :

QEYEON TOLBERT, :

Defendant-Appellee. :

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

JUDGMENT: REVERSED AND REMANDED RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: September 25, 2025

Criminal Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-24-689572-A

Appearances:

Michael C. O’Malley, Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, and Owen Knapp, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellant.

Brian M. Fallon and Daniel Tirfagnehu, for appellee.

Mathura J. Sridharan, Solicitor General, and Trane J. Robinson, Deputy Solicitor General, for amicus curiae Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

Kessler Defense LLC; Stephanie Kessler, Sixth Circuit Vice-Chair, Amicus Committee; and Sidney W. Thaxter, pro hac vice, for amicus curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Amy R. Gilbert and Freda J. Levenson, for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation.

Nathan Freed Wessler, pro hac vice, for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.

DEENA R. CALABRESE, J.:

Plaintiff-appellant State of Ohio (“the State”) appeals the trial court’s

order granting the motion to suppress evidence collected pursuant to a search

warrant executed at 403 E. 152nd Street, Apt. #1 (“the Apartment”), where

defendant-appellee Qeyeon Tolbert (“Tolbert”) resided. For the reasons stated

below, we find that the trial court did not rule on whether the affidavit for the search

warrant (“warrant affidavit”) contained false or misleading statements, omissions,

or significant undisclosed inferences. Therefore, we reverse the trial court’s order

granting the motion to suppress and remand for further proceedings consistent with

this opinion.

I. Facts and Procedural History

This appeal stems from the trial court’s suppression of evidence in a

homicide case. Cleveland Homicide Detective Michael Legg requested a warrant to

search the Apartment while investigating the murder of B.S., the victim. B.S.’s

lifeless body, shot twice in the back, was found in his bathtub by paramedics on

February 15, 2024. As described in more detail below, however, the shooting itself

occurred on a street and was captured on video. Detectives were able to identify a

suspect early in the investigation because they located B.S. on video prior to the shooting and tracked his movements along with the suspect’s both before and after

the shooting.

A. The Warrant

On February 20, 2024, Detective Legg presented a proposed search

warrant to a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge (“issuing judge”). In the

warrant affidavit, Detective Legg averred the following:

[H]e has reasonable cause to believe and does believe, that within the premises described as . . . 403 E 152nd Street, Apartment #1, City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio . . . there is now being unlawfully kept, concealed and possessed the following . . . any and all evidence pertaining to the violations of the State of Ohio, to wit: R.C. 2903.01 Aggravated murder, R.C. 2903.02 Murder.

The warrant affidavit lists the facts upon which Detective Legg based

his beliefs. Those, in relevant part, are the following:

6. Affiant avers that he, along with other members of the Homicide unit, as well as the RTCC analyst, were able to view RTCC video and located the victim on video February 14, 2024.

7. Affiant avers that upon reviewing the surveillance video they observe the victim exiting the plasma center located at E 156th and Lakeshore Blvd at 1900hrs.

8. Affiant avers that the victim walks west on Lakeshore Blvd and continues south on E 152nd Street.

9. Affiant avers that a male walks from in between the apartment buildings located at 375 and 371 E 152nd Street and begins walking in front of the victim.

10. Affiant avers that in the area of 403 E 152nd Street, the unidentified male walks into a driveway located on the east side of the street, the same side the victim was still walking south on and allows the victim to pass by him.

11. Affiant avers that the unidentified male then begins walking behind the victim as they continue south on E 152nd Street. 12. Affiant avers that the unidentified male, wearing a dark colored Adidas sweatshirt and dark colored Adidas pants, approached the victim from the back as they neared Upton Avenue.

13. Affiant avers that the unidentified male suspect then produced a firearm and pointed it at the side of the victim while holding onto the victim with his other hand.

14. Affiant avers the suspect male then shot the victim twice and the victim fell to the ground at which time the suspect begins running north on E 152nd Street.

15. Affiant avers that the suspect ran south on E 152nd Street and then went northeast onto Shiloh Avenue. The victim then gets up from the ground and continues walking south on E 152nd Street and is believed to have walked to his residence located at 15704 School Avenue.

16. Affiant avers that the suspect returned to the scene of the shooting approximately five (5) to ten (10) minutes later after having changed his pants and appeared to be looking for something on the ground.

17. Affiant avers that the suspect is then observed walking back and then running towards the address of 403 E 152nd Street.

18. Affiant avers that on February 20, 2024, while watching live video of 403 E 152nd Street, believed to be the address where the unidentified suspect ran into, he observed a male matching the description of the suspect walking from the area of 403 E 152nd Street and continue to the store located at 15208 Lakeshore Blvd. This male having the same build, hair style, clothing and walking characteristics as observed on the suspect on February 14, 2024.

19. Affiant avers that he, along with other members of the homicide unit, as well [as] the Cleveland Division of Police video specialist, Tom Cuila, responded to the Lake shore food Market at 15208 Lakeshore Blvd and downloaded surveillance video showing the suspect male enter the store at approximately 1053hrs.

20. Affiant avers that utilizing the Fusion center they received an identification of the, as of yet, unidentified male suspect, based on the recovered surveillance video, and it was learned this male was currently paroled to the address of 403 E 152nd Street, Apartment #1. 21. Affiant avers that this same male suspect was observed, in real time, on February 20, 2024, exiting and re-entering the front (west) entrance of 403 E 152nd Street, located at the northeast corner of the dwelling.

(Emphasis added.)

The issuing judge signed the warrant on the same day.

On February 21, 2024, officers executed the search warrant on the

Apartment. During the search, officers recovered a Taurus 9 mm firearm, a black

Adidas jumpsuit, black and white Nike Dunks, several cell phones, and additional

items. Officers also found and arrested Tolbert, who made statements to the police.

On March 1, 2024, a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Tolbert on

a total of 13 counts related to the February 14, 2024 homicide. These charges

included aggravated murder, three counts of murder, three counts of kidnapping,

two counts of felonious assault, two counts of aggravated robbery, having weapons

while under disability, and tampering with evidence, all with multiple specifications.

B. Motion to Suppress

On November 13, 2024, after multiple pretrials and the exchange of

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2025 Ohio 4469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-tolbert-ohioctapp-2025.