State v. Jones, 2011 Ohio 6633

Beauchamp was fatally shot on December 31, 2002 at Vine and Liberty in Cincinnati; a car full of occupants shouted anti-homosexual slurs.
Jones sat in the rear passenger seat; Ade Oba drove the car and testified Jones used a weapon to shoot Beauchamp.
The shooter fired multiple rounds after a Mountain Dew can was thrown from the car; Oba burned the car to avoid identification.
Two witnesses, Adrian Smith and Michael Matthews, testified Jones confessed involvement in Beauchamp’s murder while incarcerated with them.
A prior confession surfaced: Jones admitted involvement in the 2001 killing of a “fag” to Matthews; Smith testified to a drug-selling context with Jones.
Jones was convicted of murder under R.C. 2903.02(A) and a weapon-under-disability specification, with an aggregate 25-to-life sentence; he also faced a related concealment/transfer of firearm issue.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
admissibility of other-acts testimony	State	Jones	No reversible error; proper purpose shown (identity/relationship)
hearsay testimony by detectives about statements by co-defendants	State	Jones	Not hearsay; statements referenced content not disclosed
prosecutorial misconduct during trial	State	Jones	No reversible error; curative instruction given; arguments in proper context
sufficiency and weight of the evidence	State	Jones	Evidence sufficient; not against manifest weight; credibility weighed by trier of fact
allied offenses of similar import and merger	State	Jones	Not allied offenses; separate animus and conduct; not subject to merger

State v. Truitt, 2011-Ohio-1885 (1st Dist. No. C-050188) (abuse of discretion in evidentiary rulings; plain error analysis)
State v. Baron, 2011-Ohio-3204 (1st Dist. No. C-100474) (non-allied offenses; separate animus and conduct)
State v. Johnson, 2010-Ohio-6314 (1st Dist. No. C-100028) (allied offenses; conduct and intent analysis)
State v. Evans, 2011-Ohio-2356 (1st Dist. No. C-100028) (allied offenses and sentencing considerations)