State v. Reed

Citations

• 2024 Ohio 972

Syllabus

Jury panel, venire, challenge, admission of evidence, excited utterance, Evid.R. 803(B)(2), manifest weight of the evidence. Defendant was charged with murder, felonious assault, and having weapons while under disability following the death of the mother of one of his children. The victim was killed by a single gunshot to the back of her head, and her body was found at the side of her house. Defendant's son testified that his mother and defendant were arguing and that after he heard a gunshot, defendant left the house. The son looked for his mother and found her lying on the ground outside. The victim's daughter testified that after she heard a gunshot, defendant came into the house and said it was no big deal and then left the house. Before trial, defendant objected to the venire because it did not contain any African-American men. The trial court properly denied the motion to dismiss the venire because there was no evidence that African-American men were unfairly represented in venires in Cuyahoga County or systematically excluded from jury service. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing body-camera footage of police arrival at the scene of the murder because the statements were excited utterances where they were made by declarants that observed a startling event and they were still under the stress of the event. Circumstantial and direct evidence inherently possess the same probative value and the state is not required to present DNA or fingerprint evidence to meet its burden of persuasion. Although there was no DNA evidence and the weapon used to kill the victim was not recovered, the conviction was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.