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Bank robber nabbed by alert citizen loses his appeal
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 20, 2014
The judgment of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas was affirmed recently when the 11th District Court of Appeals declined to address a bank robber’s single assignment of error on appeal.
The defendant, Ronald Jeffries, was tried by a jury and found guilty of receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence and money laundering.
The trial court then merged all three counts for the purposes of sentencing and chose to sentence Jeffries to two years in prison on the money laundering count.
Case summary states that Jeffries robbed a western Pennsylvania branch of Community National Bank on Jan. 3, 2012.
The bank gave Jeffries bait bills which are used in case of robbery and which included a dye pack that would stain the money upon the robber’s departure from the bank.
Two days later, Jeffries appeared at the home of his friend, Jeffrey Stewart, with a bag full of red dye-stained money.
The two went to a hardware store and bought a spray that Jeffries believed would remove the dye.
When the spray method proved to be unsuccessful, the men decided to exchange the bills at coin machines located at car washes.
On Jan. 6, a pedestrian noticed that Stewart was wearing gloves that were stained red at the fingertips while he was exchanging money at a car wash coin machine.
The pedestrian, apparently familiar with the use of dye packs in bank robberies, flagged down a police officer and informed him of the situation.
The officer arrived at the car wash and found Stewart at the coin machine but did not see Jeffries.
Stewart was arrested and, three months later, he implicated Jeffries with the hope of receiving a lenient punishment.
On direct appeal to the 11th District court, Jeffries challenged the manifest weight and sufficiency of the evidence supporting his tampering with evidence conviction.
However, the district’s three-judge appellate panel noted that Jeffries’ convictions were merged and that he was only sentenced on the money laundering count.
“Under Ohio law, a conviction requires a guilty verdict plus a sentence,” wrote Judge Thomas Wright on behalf of the court of appeals.
Since Jeffries was not sentenced for tampering with evidence, he was not convicted of that offense and lacked standing to challenge the nonexistent conviction.
“As Jeffries’ sole assignment (of error) is purely academic and courts are not to issue advisory opinions, we decline to address his assignment as disposition will not change his predicament,” wrote Judge Wright. “To that extent, his assignment is without merit.”
Judges Cynthia Westcott Rice and Colleen Mary O’Toole joined Judge Wright to form the majority and uphold the judgment of the Lake County court.
The case is cited State v. Jeffries, 2014-Ohio-4738.
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