The Akron Legal News

Login | March 29, 2024

Man who murdered victim then stole his sunglasses loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News

Published: July 30, 2014

A murder conviction handed down in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas was recently upheld by a panel of judges in the 1st District Court of Appeals.

The defendant, Robert Davenport, appealed his conviction following a jury trial for the aggravated murder of Lincoln Lewis.

In eight assignments of error he argued that the trial court erred by granting a state motion to withhold evidence.

He also claimed multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct denied him a fair trial, the trial court should have granted his motion for a mistrial and a motion for acquittal, he received ineffective assistance of counsel, his convictions were against the manifest weight and sufficiency of the evidence and his sentences were contrary to law.

The three-judge appellate panel overruled all of Davenport’s arguments except for the final claim after the state conceded that the trial court failed to make the necessary findings before imposing consecutive sentences.

Case summary states that Lincoln Lewis, an aspiring rapper, was walking to the store on the afternoon of April 12, 2012 when Davenport and another man approached him at an intersection in the Avondale area of Cincinnati.

Davenport stepped in front of Lewis and eyewitnesses testified it looked like the men were about to hug, but Davenport then shot Lincoln in the abdomen.

As Lewis lay on the ground dying, Davenport took his Cartier sunglasses and went through his pockets before fleeing the scene.

Agnes Williams, a passerby who witnessed the shooting, came to Lewis’ aid and comforted him until the police and medical personnel arrived.

Lewis died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

At the crime scene, police recovered Lewis’ cellphone and a Wolf 9 mm Luger casing on the sidewalk.

Williams gave a statement with an account of the shooting and a description of the two men who had perpetrated the crime.

The shooter, she told police, was wearing a yellow shirt.

Greg Master, a bystander, also witnessed the shooting and contacted police that evening. He corroborated Williams’ account and also stated that the shooter wore a yellow shirt.

That same night, investigators contacted Lewis’ 14-year-old cousin, Albert Lewis.

He told police that he had been playing basketball in a nearby park when he heard gunshots and then saw two men bending down to take something from his cousin.

Albert said the men were young and the man in the yellow shirt was holding a gun.

Williams, Master and Albert were all separately shown a photo array which included Davenport’s photo.

All three witnesses identified Davenport as the shooter.

In his first interview with police detectives, Davenport said he had heard on the news that “someone had got shot with sunglasses.”

He vehemently denied any involvement in the crime.

While he was in custody, the police executed a search warrant for an apartment where Davenport was staying.

Inside, they recovered a yellow, embroidered zip-up jacket and a plastic bag containing six Wolf 9 mm Luger cartridges, the same type and brand as the casing recovered at the scene of Lewis’ murder.

While Davenport was housed at the Hamilton County Justice Center, he made a series of phone calls to his father and to Charae Henson, the mother of his child.

The calls were played for the jury at trial.

Most of the conversations were centered around arranging Davenport’s alibi that he was dropping his son off at daycare at the time of the shooting.

Davenport instructed Henson to turn off his phone so that that the police could not use it as evidence and even offered to bribe some witnesses with $200 apiece if they testified that they did not see him at the scene of the crime.

Davenport was indicted for aggravated murder, felony murder, aggravated robbery and having a weapon under disability.

The murder and the robbery charges were each accompanied by a three-year firearm specification.

Following Davenport’s not guilty plea and prior to trial, the state filed a motion seeking nondisclosure of its witnesses after evidence surfaced that Davenport’s family was intimidating them.

The motion was granted after a hearing on the matter despite objection from the defense.

Davenport was ultimately found guilty as charged and the trial court imposed an aggregate sentence of 36 years to life with parole eligibility after 30 years.

Upon appeal, one of Davenport’s arguments centered on the state’s motion for nondisclosure of trial witnesses.

He claimed that, by granting the motion, the trial court violated his due process rights.

The appellate panel reviewed the record of the hearing on the motion, where the prosecutor provided details regarding the intimidation of state witnesses by Davenport’s family members.

“Some witnesses were so concerned for their safety that they had contacted the Cincinnati police to report the contacts,” wrote Judge Patrick Fischer on behalf of the court of appeals. “Police squad cars had been dispatched to take aggravated menacing reports in some instances.”

The appellate panel determined that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by withholding the names of the state’s witnesses.

It went on to overrule many of Davenport’s claims, including that his conviction was against the manifest weight and sufficiency of the evidence.

“When viewed in a light most favorable to the prosecution, the evidence could have convinced a reasonable trier of fact that Davenport had committed the offense,” wrote Judge Fischer. “Moreover, the jury, as the trier of fact, was in the best position to judge the credibility of the witnesses.”

After the state conceded error, the court of appeals did sustain Davenport’s final assignment of error.

“Our review of the record demonstrates that the trial court failed to make the findings necessary to support consecutive sentences either orally at the sentencing hearing or on a sentencing-findings worksheet,” wrote Judge Fischer.

Davenport’s sentences were therefore vacated and the case remanded for the trial court to make the proper findings and to determine whether consecutive sentences are appropriate.

The judgment of the Hamilton County court was upheld in all other respects with Presiding Judge Sylvia Hendon and Judge Patrick Dinkelacker concurring.

The case is cited State v. Davenport, 2014-Ohio-2800.

Copyright © 2014 The Daily Reporter - All Rights Reserved


[Back]