State v. Montgomery (Slip Opinion), 148 Ohio St. 3d 347

Background

On Nov. 26, 2010 Caron Montgomery killed his former girlfriend Tia Hendricks and her two children; he pleaded guilty in 2012 to murder, domestic violence, and aggravated murder with capital specifications. A three-judge panel sentenced him to death for the aggravated murders of the two children and 15 years-to-life for Tia’s murder.
Police found the three victims dead in Tia’s apartment and Montgomery injured in the bedroom; a large knife, bloody clothing, and DNA linking Montgomery to blood on the knife, bottle, pants, and Tia’s car were recovered. Autopsies showed fatal neck stab wounds to each victim.
Montgomery waived a jury and pleaded guilty before a three-judge panel; the panel conducted the required R.C. 2945.06 plea hearing and a mitigation hearing, heard state evidence (Detective Croom) and defense mitigation testimony, then merged certain counts and imposed death sentences on the children-related counts.
On direct appeal Montgomery raised seven propositions: (1) sufficiency/manifest weight as to an escaping-detection specification; (2) that his jury waiver and guilty plea were not knowing/voluntary because he was on psychotropic meds and the court should have inquired or ordered competency testing; (3) ineffective assistance of counsel at plea/mitigation; (4) excessive admission/use of gruesome photos; (5) alleged sentencing/weighing errors in the panel’s written opinion; and (6) various settled challenges to Ohio’s death penalty scheme.
The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed convictions and death sentences, holding the waiver and plea valid despite prescribed medications (no indicia of incompetence), capital specifications were proven beyond a reasonable doubt, counsel was not ineffective, photographic evidence was properly admitted for mitigation/aggravating context, and the panel’s sentencing findings were either proper or subject to judicial reweighing.

Issues

Issue	Montgomery's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Validity of jury waiver and guilty plea given Montgomery was on Risperdal and Thorazine	Waiver and plea were not knowing, intelligent, voluntary; court should have inquired further or ordered competency eval because of meds	Written waiver, colloquy, and counsel’s assurances suffice; meds alone do not rebut presumption of competence	Waiver and plea were valid; no competency hearing required absent indicia of incompetence; colloquy and counsel’s representations were adequate (Mink/Ketterer distinguished)
Sufficiency/manifest weight of evidence for R.C. 2929.04(A)(3) escaping-detection specification (Tahlia)	State failed to prove Tia’s death preceded Tahlia’s or that Tahlia was killed to escape detection	Specification language does not require proof that a particular murder preceded another; circumstantial evidence supports intent to silence a witness	Evidence sufficient: circumstantial proof supports that Tahlia (a witness) could have been killed to avoid detection; conviction not against manifest weight
Ineffective assistance of counsel (multiple claims: failure to object to hearsay/testimony, not securing plea bargain, mitigation investigation and expert testimony, failing to pursue judge-removal inquiry)	Counsel failed to object to inadmissible evidence, failed to obtain plea bargaining to avoid death, failed to present experts and adequately prepare witnesses, and handled alleged sleeping-judge issue poorly	Counsel engaged in strategic mitigation work, retained experts, litigated evidentiary issues, and objections would likely have failed or been harmless; strong guilt evidence existed	Strickland not met: counsel’s actions fell within reasonable professional judgment; no reasonable probability of different outcome shown; cumulative-error claim fails
Sentencing/weighing and separate-assessment requirement when multiple aggravated-murder counts exist	Panel’s written opinion referenced four aggravators collectively and implies combined weighing across counts, violating requirement to weigh aggravators per count	Panel’s other statements and individual verdict forms show separate findings; any ambiguity can be cured by independent reweighing by this court	Held no reversible error: verdict forms and record show separate findings; court independently reweighed and affirmed that aggravators outweighed mitigation for each child

Key Cases Cited

Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 (establishes that pleas must be voluntary and knowing)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective-assistance-of-counsel two-prong test)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (sufficiency standard for criminal convictions)
State v. Ketterer, 111 Ohio St.3d 70 (Ohio 2006) (capital plea requirements and proof of specifications after guilty plea)
State v. Mink, 101 Ohio St.3d 350 (Ohio 2004) (additional inquiry into medication effects where defendant states he is under influence)
State v. Jenks, 61 Ohio St.3d 259 (Ohio 1991) (reciting Jackson sufficiency standard)