State v. Willis

949 N.E.2d 1042, 192 Ohio App. 3d 579
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 18, 2011
DocketNo. H-10-003
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 949 N.E.2d 1042 (State v. Willis) 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. Willis, 949 N.E.2d 1042, 192 Ohio App. 3d 579 (Ohio Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Singer, Judge.

{¶ 1} Appellant appeals his conviction for forgery and possession of criminal tools entered on a jury verdict in the Huron County Court of Common Pleas. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

{¶ 2} On April 19, 2008, a man in a silver-colored SUV came to the drive-through window at the McDonald’s restaurant in Norwalk, Ohio, ordering food that cost less than ten dollars. The man handed the window clerk a $100 bill. In accordance with store policy, the window clerk checked the bill with a marker intended to detect counterfeit money. The result was an indication that the bill was suspect.

{¶ 3} The window clerk summoned a store manager, who applied a different detection marker with similar results. The clerk requested the customer to drive forward, while another manager called the police. The driver of the SUV pulled forward, waited a few minutes, and then left without obtaining either his food or his change.

{¶ 4} McDonald’s personnel obtained the license-plate number of the SUV when it pulled forward. When the car left, they again called police to report that the car was gone and to provide the license number. A short time later, police stopped the vehicle at the entrance to the Ohio Turnpike. Inside was appellant, Brent R. Willis.

{¶ 5} Appellant admitted paying at McDonald’s with the suspect $100 bill and produced two similar bills when police inquired whether he had more. Appellant told police that he had obtained the money in a cash sale of a stereo system. Police asked appellant to accompany them to the police station. There he produced seven more $100 bills.

{¶ 6} An officer took the bills to a local bank for examination. While there, the officer noted that some of the bills had duplicate serial numbers. All the bills were deemed suspect by bank officials. Norwalk police eventually contacted the United States Secret Service, an agent of which examined the bills and concluded that all ten were counterfeit.

{¶ 7} On May 23, 2008, appellant was named in an indictment by the Huron County Grand Jury for one count of possession of criminal tools (R.C. 2923.24(A) and (C)) and one count of forgery (R.C. 2913.31(A)(3)), both fifth-degree felonies. Appellant pleaded not guilty, but eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of criminal-tool possession. Prior to sentencing, however, he withdrew his plea, and the matter proceeded to a trial before a jury on the original indictment.

{¶ 8} At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found appellant guilty of forgery, as charged, but found that the amount of the attempted theft was less than $500. [582]*582As a result, the jury found appellant guilty of misdemeanor possession of criminal tools, a lesser included offense. The court rejected appellant’s motion to set aside the verdict and sentenced him to a six-month term of incarceration on the misdemeanor-possession charge and an eight-month term for forgery. The sentences were ordered to be served concurrently.

{¶ 9} It is from this judgment of conviction that appellant now brings this appeal.

{¶ 10} Appellant sets forth the following three assignments of error:

{¶ 11} “A. The evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support a finding that appellant Willis knowingly and with purpose to defraud or to facilitate a fraud, possessed and/or uttered the alleged counterfeit money.
{¶ 12} “B. The decision of the jury that appellant Willis knowingly and with purpose to defraud or facilitate a fraud, possessed the counterfeit money was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.
{¶ 13} “C. The trial court erred by sentencing appellant on both the possession of criminal tools and of forgery where those offenses constitute allied offenses of similar import which were not committed separately or with separate animus.”

I. Weight and Sufficiency of Evidence

{¶ 14} We shall discuss appellant’s first two assignments or error together.

{¶ 15} In a criminal context, a verdict or finding may be overturned on appeal if it is against the manifest weight of the evidence or because there is an insufficiency of evidence. In the former, the appeals court acts as a “thirteenth juror” to determine whether the trier of fact lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be overturned and a new trial ordered. State v. Thompkins (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 380, 387, 678 N.E.2d 541.

{¶ 16} In the latter, the court must determine whether the evidence submitted is legally sufficient to support all the elements of the offense charged. Id. at 386-387. Specifically, we must determine whether the state has presented evidence that if believed, would convince the average mind of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The test is whether, 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. Id. at 390 (Cook, J., concurring); State v. Jenks (1991), 61 Ohio St.3d 259, 574 N.E.2d 492, paragraph two of the syllabus. See also State v. Eley (1978), 56 Ohio St.2d 169, 10 O.O.3d 340, 383 N.E.2d 132; State v. Barnes (1986), 25 Ohio St.3d 203, 25 OBR 266, 495 N.E.2d 922.

{¶ 17} R.C. 2923.24(A), the criminal-tools statute, provides:

[583]*583{¶ 18} “(A) No person shall possess or have under the person’s control any substance, device, instrument, or article, with purpose to use it criminally.”

{¶ 19} The offense is ordinarily a misdemeanor unless the circumstances are such that the article or device was intended for use in the commission of a felony, in which case the offense is a fifth-degree felony. R.C. 2928.24(C).

{¶20} R.C. 2913.31(A)(3), the forgery statute, forbids a person with the purpose of defrauding or knowing that he or she is facilitating a fraud to “[u]tter, or possess with purpose to utter, any writing that the person knows to have been forged.” “To utter, as used in a statute against forgery and counterfeiting, means to offer, whether accepted or not, a forged instrument, with the representation, by words or actions, that the same is genuine.” Black’s Law Dictionary (6th Ed. 1990) 1547.

{¶ 21} The offense is ordinarily a fifth-degree felony unless the value of the property or services involved or the loss to the victim exceeds $500. R.C. 2913.31(C)(1).

{¶ 22} At trial, a secret-service agent testified that the bill appellant passed, and the other nine bills he possessed, were counterfeit. Appellant did not deny passing the one $100 bill, nor did he dispute that he was in possession of the other nine bills. His defense was that he was unaware that the bills were counterfeit.

{¶ 23} According to appellant, he acquired all of the bills from an individual he knew only by the street name “Alabama.” “Alabama” purchased a stereo from him for $1,000, and this was the source of all of the bills, appellant insisted. Appellant had no knowledge that the bills were counterfeit.

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Related

State v. Koller
2014 Ohio 450 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
949 N.E.2d 1042, 192 Ohio App. 3d 579, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-willis-ohioctapp-2011.