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11th District overturns arson conviction
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: October 28, 2014
The aggravated arson conviction for a man who was inside a meth house when it burned down was not supported by sufficient evidence, the 11th District Court of Appeals recently ruled.
Tyler S. D. Payne was found guilty by an Ashtabula County jury on three counts - one count of illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs, illegal manufacture of drugs and aggravated arson. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on only the arson count because the court merged the crimes.
Case summary indicates Richard Loveridge was repairing a car on Dec. 8, 2012 at Vernotta Jiminez’s apartment in exchange for methamphetamine. At trial, Loveridge testified he went to a neighboring apartment to visit a friend. Afterward, he noticed smoke coming from Jiminez’s apartment. He went inside and saw the kitchen up in flames.
Payne, who was inside the unit with Jiminez, left with Loveridge and another woman. The fire caused $83,000 in damages to Ashtabula Metropolitan Housing Authority property.
Ashtabula city police found items commonly used to make meth in the home, including a pseudoephedrine package, Heet antifreeze and lithium batteries. A mailing envelope with Payne’s name on it and a receipt for a cold pack and three Zippo lighter fluid entries was found in the master bedroom. His car remained at the crime scene, and in the car, bottles were discovered that are used in a “one-pot method” meth lab.
A light bulb/smoking device from the crime scene contained a trace amount of methamphetamine, according to a forensic scientist who testified.
However, 11th District Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice’s opinion agreed the jury lost its way by convicting Payne.
“In this case, the state submitted no direct evidence that appellant was involved in the ignition of the fire,” Rice wrote. “It is undisputed that appellant was in the home when the fire started. The evidence of his presence in the apartment, without more, is insufficient to connect him to the creation of the fire because he was not alone; Vernotta Jiminez, the actual denizen of the apartment, was also in the residence. And, because there was no direct evidence presented indicating Vernotta was involved in the ignition of the fire, there is nothing to support a circumstantial inference that appellant was even complicit in the fire’s ignition.”
Rice added that the cause of the fire was ruled undetermined. In addition, meth-making equipment and ingredients were mainly found in either the back bathroom or a back bedroom, away from the kitchen.
“The only piece of evidence in the kitchen was an over-pressurized 20 ounce plastic bottle. Even assuming the bottle was, at some point used for the production of methamphetamine, the evidence did not suggest the bottle was ruptured or otherwise damaged in such a way to suggest it was instrumental in causing the fire,” according to her opinion.
Rice noted circumstantial evidence supports the inference that meth production had occurred at some point in the apartment. However, the panel found no evidence Payne was operating or complicit in the operation of the lab when the fire was started.
“The conviction for aggravated arson was therefore premised upon insufficient evidence and must be vacated,” Rice stated.
Appellate judges Timothy P. Cannon and Thomas R. Wright concurred.
However, the panel noted the state’s decision to proceed to sentencing on the arson count did not eliminate the jury’s findings on the remaining two counts.
“…We therefore hold this matter must be remanded to the trial court for the state to, once again, elect the count on which it wishes to proceed to sentencing,” Rice wrote.
The appellate court disagreed with Payne’s argument that the trial court erred by not allowing him to obtain different counsel. Payne requested a new defense attorney during cross-examination of the state’s final witness. Payne agreed to go on with the trial pro se after “vague objections to trial counsel’s strategy,” Rice stated.
State v. Payne is cited 2014-Ohio-4304.