State v. Umstead

2017 Ohio 698
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided February 24, 2017·No. 16 CA 004·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS

HOLMES COUNTY, OHIO

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

STATE OF OHIO JUDGES:

Hon. William B. Hoffman, P. J.

Plaintiff-Appellee Hon. John W. Wise, J.

Hon. Patricia A. Delaney, J.

-vs-

Case No. 16 CA 004

MATTHEW B. UMSTEAD

Defendant-Appellant OPINION

CHARACTER OF PROCEEDING: Criminal Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas, Case Nos. 15CR106 and 16CR006

JUDGMENT: Affirmed

DATE OF JUDGMENT ENTRY: February 24, 2017

APPEARANCES: For Plaintiff-Appellee For Defendant-Appellant

STEVE KNOWLING DAVID M. HUNTER PROSECUTING ATTORNEY 244 West Main Street F. CHRISTOPHER OEHL Loudonville, Ohio 44842 ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR 164 East Jackson Street Millersburg, Ohio 44654

Wise, J.

{¶1} Defendant-Appellant Matthew B. Umstead appeals from his conviction, in the Court of Common Pleas, Holmes County, on several felony counts connected to the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. Appellee is the State of Ohio. The relevant facts leading to this appeal are as follows.

{¶2} On November 23, 2015, Sgt. Timothy Stryker, a narcotics detective with the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, received information concerning a purchase of pseudoephedrine from the Ritzman Pharmacy in Shreve, Ohio. The purchaser was Donnie Spurlock, who was known by the detective to periodically stay at appellant's home on West Jackson Street in Holmesville, Ohio. Based on the pharmacy information, Sgt. Stryker decided to conduct visual surveillance of appellant's residence. Stryker observed that appellant's vehicle was not at the residence. After a while, Stryker returned to the Sheriff’s Department, but he received a second alert that Spurlock had also purchased pseudoephedrine at another store, this time the Rite Aid Pharmacy in Wooster. Stryker went back to again set up surveillance at appellant's home. At that time, he observed appellant come home, with Spurlock in the vehicle.

{¶3} At about 7:25 PM on the same date, after Stryker had returned to his regular uniformed patrol activities, he and a fellow officer, Detective Mullet, drove down West Jackson and observed a fire in the back yard of appellant's residence. He saw “black smoke” coming from the fire and suspected it was not wood burning. Tr. at 107. He approached the back of the residence and approached co-defendant Jason White, who was putting more items into the fire. White indicated he was just "burning some trash." Tr. at 109. Stryker observed a trash bag next to White as he approached him. The bag was later found to contain used pseudoephedrine packs. White indicated that appellant was in the house and left to get him. Stryker observed an odor of chemical coming from the fire and was able to see a pseudoephedrine box that had not caught fire yet. Stryker decided to secure the property to get a search warrant. While he was walking on the property, he observed an odor he associated with the manufacturing of methamphetamine in the narrow area between the “man cave” (a shed behind the house) and the back of the detached garage. According to a photographic exhibit provided by the State, the distance between the northeast corner of the “man cave” shed and the northeast corner of the house is seventy-five feet, making the man cave about forty feet behind the rear of the house, abutting the back wall of the garage. Shortly thereafter, back-up officers entered the garage.

{¶4} Spurlock in the meantime came out of the "man cave" and was cuffed by Deputy Strother. Deputies then entered the man cave and discovered an active meth lab. The lab was dismantled. A search warrant was obtained for the property at about 10:25 PM. During execution of the warrant in the home, they found "baggies of a crystal-like white powdered" substance in a safe in appellant's bedroom. Tr. at 125. The powder was later analyzed by BCI and determined to be methamphetamine. Tr. at 172.

{¶5} The deputies took appellant into custody that evening, after White had gone into the house to get him. Stryker interviewed appellant on video at the Holmes County Jail at approximately 1:00 AM on November 24, 2015.

{¶6} On December 17, 2015, Sgt. Stryker returned to appellant’s residence based on a telephone call from appellant's mother, who indicated she had found a gun on the back of the headboard in appellant's room.

Holmes County, Case No. 16 CA 004 4

{¶7} Appellant was thereafter charged by joint indictments with at least eight felony counts stemming from the aforesaid investigatory activity. Following a pre-trial renumbering entry by the trial court, the counts were set forth as follows:1

{¶8} Count 1 - Illegal Manufacture of Drugs (R.C. 2925.04(A)); Count 2 - Illegal Assembly or Possession of Chemicals for the Manufacture of Drugs (R.C. 2925.041(A)); Count 3 - Aggravated Possession of Drugs (R.C. 2925.11(A)); Count 4 - Tampering with Evidence (R.C. 2921.12(A)(1)); Count 5 - Endangering Children (R.C. 2919.22(B)(6)); Count 6- Endangering Children (R.C. 2919.22(B)(6)); Count 7- Having Weapons while Under Disability (R.C. 2923.13(A)(2)); and Count 8 - Aggravated Possession of Drugs (R.C. 2925.11(A)).

{¶9} The matter proceeded to a jury trial on April 7 and 8, 2016. Appellant was ultimately found guilty of all eight counts; however, he was found not guilty of the firearm specifications as alleged on four of the counts.

{¶10} Via a judgment entry issued on April 11, 2016, appellant was sentenced inter alia to a prison term of sixteen years and six months.

{¶11} On May 9, 2016, appellant filed a notice of appeal. He herein raises the following three Assignments of Error:

{¶12} “I. THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT APPELLANT'S CONVICTIONS AND/OR THE CONVICTIONS ARE AGAINST THE MANIFEST WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.

1 Based on our reading of the trial court file, the numbering of the counts as provided in the appellate briefs is partially erroneous.

{¶13} “II. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DENYING APPELLANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS UNDER CRIM.R 29(A) AT THE CLOSE OF ALL EVIDENCE.

{¶14} “III. THE APPELLANT WAS DENIED EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL.”

I.

{¶15} In his First Assignment of Error, appellant contends his convictions tied to the methamphetamine lab at the back of his property were not supported by sufficient evidence and were against the manifest weight of the evidence. We disagree.

Sufficiency Claim

{¶16} The gist of appellant’s claim concerning the sufficiency of the evidence is his challenge to the State’s theory that appellant acted in complicity with Spurlock and/or White to operate the methamphetamine lab in the “man cave” shed building at the back of the garage, urging that at least six of the counts centered on the meth lab found in the man cave.

{¶17} In reviewing a claim of insufficient evidence, “[t]he relevant inquiry is whether, after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Jenks (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 259, 574 N.E.2d 492, paragraph two of the syllabus.

{¶18} Appellant directs our attention to the “aiding or abetting” subsection of Ohio's complicity statute, i.e., R.C. 2923.03(A)(2). This portion of the statute reads in pertinent part as follows: “No person, acting with the kind of culpability required for the commission of an offense, shall *** [a]id or abet another in committing the offense.” Under

Holmes County, Case No. 16 CA 004 6

R.C. 2923.03(F) of the complicity statute, “[w]hoever violates this section is guilty of complicity in the commission of an offense, and shall be prosecuted and punished as if he were a principal offender.” (Emphasis added).

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