2023 Ohio 3490
Ohio Ct. App.2023Background
- On Jan. 1, 2018, gunfire at Brian Williams’s home left Williams and Marlazia Jones-Mattox dead; a 15-year-old (D.W.) survived with severe injuries; Jones-Mattox was 35 weeks pregnant and the fetus survived.
- Mario M. Wade was indicted on multiple counts including aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder (felony-murder), felonious assault (unborn child), tampering with evidence, and having a weapon while under disability; gang and firearm specifications accompanied most counts.
- A.R., an accomplice who pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence recommendation, testified that she drove Wade, co-defendant Christian Dillion, and D.W. to Williams’s home, that the group armed themselves, that Wade shot Williams, and that guns were later discarded at locations A.R. later showed police.
- Surveillance footage corroborated A.R.’s car and movements; police recovered firearms from the disposal sites A.R. identified; ballistics linked bullets/casings to those recovered guns; DNA linked a handgun found at Wade’s arrest to Wade (but that gun was not ballistically tied to the murders).
- The jury convicted Wade on multiple counts and specifications; the trial court sentenced him to an aggregate 72 years to life. Wade timely appealed, raising eight assignments of error (sufficiency, manifest weight, ineffective assistance in several respects, evidentiary rulings, and cumulative error).
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sufficiency / Crim.R. 29 | State: A.R.’s testimony, surveillance, recovered guns, ballistics and DNA provide legally sufficient proof of elements. | Wade: A.R.’s testimony is weak and uncorroborated; lack of fingerprints/DNA at scene undermines proof. | Court: Evidence, viewed favorably to prosecution, was sufficient; Crim.R. 29 motion properly denied. |
| Manifest weight of the evidence | State: Jury could credit A.R.; corroboration supports verdicts. | Wade: Verdicts are against weight given witness credibility problems and sparse physical evidence. | Court: After weighing record and credibility, convictions not against manifest weight. |
| Ineffective assistance of counsel (stipulation to unavailability; gang testimony; attire; juror voir dire) | State: Counsel’s stipulations and omissions were reasonable trial strategy; Dillion’s Fifth Amendment invocation made him unavailable; gang evidence was admissible for gang specification. | Wade: Counsel deficient for stipulating to Dillion’s unavailability, failing to object to gang testimony, not securing civilian clothes, and not voir dire-ing jurors. | Court: Under Strickland, counsel’s conduct not deficient or not prejudicial; no relief. |
| Evidentiary rulings (admission of gun at arrest) & cumulative error | State: Gun and arrest circumstances were relevant to proving gang specification; limiting instruction mitigated prejudice. | Wade: Gun was irrelevant to murders and unfairly prejudicial; cumulative errors denied a fair trial. | Court: Trial court did not abuse discretion admitting the gun; limiting instruction and other gang evidence justified admission; no cumulative-error reversal. |
Key Cases Cited
- Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (two-prong standard for ineffective assistance of counsel)
- Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501 (U.S. 1976) (State may not compel defendant to wear prison clothes; compulsion, not mere attire, is decisive)
- State v. Thompkins, 78 Ohio St.3d 380 (Ohio 1997) (distinguishing sufficiency of the evidence from manifest weight review)
- State v. Hundley, 162 Ohio St.3d 509 (Ohio 2020) (factors for prior calculation and design in aggravated murder)
- State v. Kirk, 72 Ohio St.3d 564 (Ohio 1995) (court may exclude a witness who will only invoke Fifth Amendment; defendant cannot force invocation before jury)
- State v. DeHass, 10 Ohio St.2d 230 (Ohio 1967) (credibility and weight of evidence are primarily for the trier of fact)