State v. Wilkins

919 N.E.2d 241, 183 Ohio App. 3d 824
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 4, 2009
DocketNo. 22834
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 919 N.E.2d 241 (State v. Wilkins) 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. Wilkins, 919 N.E.2d 241, 183 Ohio App. 3d 824 (Ohio Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

Brogan, Judge.

{¶ 1} Keison Wilkins appeals from his conviction and sentence for one count of improper discharge of a firearm at or into a habitation, with accompanying firearm specification; one count of having a weapon while under disability, with accompanying firearm specification; and two counts of felonious assault, each with accompanying firearm and repeat-violent-offender specifications. Several trials later, Wilkins was found guilty of these offenses and sentenced to a total of 42 years in prison.

{¶ 2} In support of his appeal, Wilkins contends that the prosecutor violated Crim.R. 16 by disclosing his intention to call a witness only four days before trial. Wilkins next contends that the trial court should have ordered a mistrial after his right to self-representation, under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, was prejudiced by his collapse during trial. He also contends that the verdict is not supported by sufficient evidence and is contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence. Finally, Wilkins contends that under State v. Foster, 109 Ohio St.3d 1, 2006-Ohio-856, 845 N.E.2d 470, the trial court was not permitted to impose an add-on sentence for a repeat-violent-offender specification. We will affirm.

[827]*827I

{¶ 3} On the evening of April 27, 2004, William Prigmore was driving around with his friend, Keison Wilkins. Wilkins had previously told Prigmore that Wilkins’s friend, Chuck, had offered him $10,000 to kill a man named Reginald Brooks. Chuck believed that Brooks had had something to do with his (Chuck’s) getting shot earlier that year. In addition to the money, Wilkins had his own reason for harming Brooks. In the early 90s, Wilkins and Brooks had been codefendants convicted of robbery and had been sent to prison, but Brooks received a lighter sentence. While Prigmore and Wilkins were driving, Wilkins’s cell-phone rang. After he hung up, Wilkins told Prigmore that it was Chuck. Chuck, he said, had just told him that Brooks would be working on one of Brooks’s houses the next day on Faulkner Avenue and driving a Lexus. “I’m going to get him tomorrow,” Wilkins told Prigmore.

The shooting

{¶ 4} The next day, April 28, Brooks stopped by the house he owned at 730 Faulkner Avenue. He was remodeling it and wanted to check on the progress. Anita Steward, a friend of Brooks, brought some food to the house, which the two ate inside. When they were finished, Brooks and Steward left the house and crossed the street to Brooks’s Lexus. A man dressed in black and carrying an assault rifle paused behind a truck parked on the street nearby and watched them. After they got into the car, the man pointed the rifle at the Lexus and pulled the trigger.

{¶ 5} Brooks and Steward were just about to pull away, when the first bullets hit. They ducked down, and Brooks reached under the floor mat and grabbed his gun. Keeping his head down, Brooks lifted the gun and began firing blindly in the direction of the shooter. At some point, he was briefly able to peer over the dashboard to get a look at the man. When the shooter stopped to reload, Brooks exited the bullet-ridden car. Brooks saw the shooter coming around the truck, and he raced across the street, firing as he ran. Brooks ran back inside the house, where Steward also had run, and Brooks called 911, telling the operator, “730 Faulkner, black guy, hooded mask, his name is Keison Wilkins.” Brooks had recognized Wilkins. When the police arrived, Brooks told them, too, that Wilkins had been the shooter.

{¶ 6} That night, Prigmore received a call from Wilkins. Wilkins told him that he had not succeeded in killing Brooks, and he asked Prigmore to meet him at an apartment. Prigmore arrived in time to see Wilkins take off a black hoodie, black pants, and a bullet-proof vest. Then Chuck pulled up. Chuck was angry, and he and Wilkins started arguing about Wilkins’s failure to do the job. Chuck told Wilkins that he was going to give him only $1,500. After further argument, Prigmore watched Chuck throw the money at Wilkins, and he heard Wilkins tell [828]*828Chuck that his gun was under the couch. Prigmore then watched as Chuck pulled an assault rifle out from under the couch. After Chuck left, Wilkins described the events of the shooting to Prigmore. Prigmore expressed puzzlement as to how Wilkins missed at such close range. Wilkins replied, “I don’t [know] if you ever shot a[n] automatic weapon before but it’s so hard to control it be flying everywhere. That’s why I couldn’t hit him.”

{¶ 7} A police investigation found numerous bullet holes in the car and spent casings from an SKS or AK-47 assault rifle on the sidewalk. Police also found a bullet hole in the spouting on a nearby residence along with a bullet divot in the brick of one of the home’s porch supports. When police tried to arrest Wilkins on May 24, 2004, he fled into the apartment. When they finally captured him, Wilkins lied to the police about his name. Inside the apartment, police found the bullet-proof vest that Prigmore described seeing.

{¶ 8} Wilkins was indicted on one count of having a weapon while under disability, accompanied by a three-year firearm specification; one count of improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, accompanied by a three-year firearm specification; and two counts of felonious assault with a deadly weapon, each accompanied by a three-year firearm specification and a repeat-violent-offender specification. Wilkins was also indicted on charges related to a separate incident, which is not relevant here.1

The trials

{¶ 9} A jury trial commenced in December 2004 on the felonious-assault and improper-discharge-of-a-firearm charges, along with the accompanying firearm specifications. The charge of having a weapon under disability, its accompanying firearm specification, and the repeat-violent-offender specifications were tried to the judge. The jury was unable to reach a verdict, so the trial judge declared a mistrial on all the charges. A second trial was held in January 2005, which likewise divided the charges between judge and jury. At the conclusion, Wilkins was found guilty of all the charges and specifications — those before both the judge and jury. The trial court sentenced him to a total of 24 years in prison. We, however, finding that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel, [829]*829reversed his conviction and sentence and remanded the case. State v. Wilkins, Montgomery App. No. 21562, 2007-Ohio-2962, 2007 WL 1720476. In June 2008, Wilkins was tried a third time on the same charges. This time, despite the trial judge’s repeated cautions, Wilkins exercised his right to represent himself. Just in case, the trial court appointed stand-by counsel to assist him.

The collapse

{¶ 10} Near the end of the trial, something unusual occurred during Wilkins’s cross-examination of the prosecution’s rebuttal witness. The court reporter recorded it this way:

{¶ 11} “[Wilkins]: She never provided with you — excuse me, hold for a second. Your Honor, excuse me for a second, I need some time.

{¶ 12} “(Defendant falls to the floor.)”2

{¶ 13} The judge immediately excused the jury from the courtroom and went off the record. Upon returning, the judge said,

{¶ 14} “The record will reflect that the jury is not present. The defendant is present and is feigning some medical condition.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
919 N.E.2d 241, 183 Ohio App. 3d 824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilkins-ohioctapp-2009.