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Court split three ways in heroin overdose case
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 23, 2015
A three-judge appellate panel in the 11th District Court of Appeals was divided three ways when it recently considered the case of James Lamar Patterson, a Trumbull County man who was convicted of reckless homicide and other charges related to the sale of heroin.
Patterson, known by his street name “Fresh,” was found guilty by a jury in the Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas of reckless homicide, two counts of corrupting another with drugs, three counts of trafficking in heroin and one count of tampering with evidence.
At sentencing, the trial court merged the corruption counts and two of the trafficking counts and then imposed an aggregate prison term of 20 years. It also ordered Patterson to pay a $15,000 fine.
The charges against Patterson stemmed from two separate incidents that were prosecuted at a single trial.
The first incident took place on April 6, 2012, the victim’s birthday.
Christine Sheesely turned 17 on that day and decided that she wanted to celebrate by doing heroin.
Testimony elicited at Patterson’s trial established that, after dinner with her mother, Sheesely and her friend, Lexi Hugel, went to the home of Tyler Stevens.
After a phone call from Stevens, Patterson arrived at the apartment and sold them heroin for which Sheesely paid.
After about 15 minutes, Patterson departed. Hugel also left the apartment and testified that she did not see Sheesely ingest heroin but when she returned, Sheesely was “passed out.”
Hugel told the trial court that Stevens was “nervous” and “moving around a lot” and that Sheesely was “making gurgling noises.”
Around midnight, Stevens called Patterson who returned to the apartment.
“He said that she needed rest and that if she didn’t wake up to put her in a cold shower,” Hugel testified.
Patterson remained in the apartment for about a half hour before leaving again.
Stevens, who was 18 years old at the time, stated that he had arranged the heroin sale.
He testified that, after Patterson and Hugel initially left the apartment, he injected himself with heroin and then injected Sheesely. The two of them passed out but only Stevens woke up.
Stevens said that when Patterson returned, he looked at Sheesely and “said she would be all right.”
Sheesely, however, was unresponsive throughout the night and Stevens called the police in the morning.
Captain John Norman of the Girard Police Department testified at trial that he responded to a dispatch regarding an unresponsive female on the morning of April 7, 2012 and discovered Sheesely’s lifeless body at the scene.
During trial, the Trumbull County Medical Examiner testified that Sheesely’s death was caused by acute heroin intoxication combined with acute pulmonary pneumonia.
He told the jury that the sudden onset of pneumonia occurs from depression of the respiratory system, an effect of heroin ingestion.
The second incident leading to the charges against Patterson occurred on May 24, 2012 when police arranged for a controlled buy of heroin from Patterson by a confidential informant.
Following the arrest, two bags of heroin were recovered from Patterson’s vehicle and $274 in cash was found on Patterson.
After he was convicted and sentenced, Patterson appealed directly to the 11th District Court of Appeals and the state filed a cross appeal.
Five assignments of error from Patterson were overruled by the majority, including one that challenged the sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence supporting his reckless homicide and corruption convictions.
The state’s assignment of error challenging the merger of the trafficking counts was upheld with a different majority ruling that the trial court should have imposed separate sentences on the two counts.
Judge Diane Grendell, who authored the majority opinion, addressed Patterson’s contentions first and noted that there was sufficient evidence that Patterson knew he was giving Sheesely access to heroin via the sale facilitated by Stevens.
According to Patterson’s appellate brief, he argued, “It is impossible to suggest that appellant could have foreseen as a consequence of his drug sale to Stevens that Stevens would, subsequently, inject Sheesely with heroin and that she would, subsequently, die as a result of the injection.”
Grendell disagreed: “In the present case, the evidence showed that Patterson sold heroin that he knew was being purchased with Sheesely’s money and so he could reasonably assume that she would use the heroin.”
Grendell pointed out that Patterson returned to the apartment several hours later at the request of Stevens, who was agitated at Sheesely’s failure to regain consciousness.
“Fully aware that the heroin he sold caused her to be in that state, Patterson failed to seek medical attention or have such attention sought on her behalf,” Grendell wrote. “The failure to do so resulted in her death from acute pneumonia.”
Judge Thomas Wright dissented on that point with a separate opinion in which he held that there was insufficient evidence to support the reckless homicide conviction.
“In concluding that the sale of heroin could be sufficient to rise to the level of recklessness, the majority simply assesses the general risks inherent in the activity of heroin dealing,” Wright wrote.
Additionally, Wright held that there was no evidence that Patterson’s failure to seek medical help caused Sheesely’s death.
He noted that there was no way that Patterson could have been aware that Sheesely had acute pneumonia, as that was a fact revealed only by the autopsy.
“When Patterson arrived in the apartment for the second time, Sheesely had already been in an unconscious state for several hours,” Wright wrote. “From a medical standpoint, there is no evidence whatsoever as to the progression of her pneumonia at that time and what, if anything, could have been done to save her.”
Despite his dissent regarding the homicide, Wright joined Grendell to form the majority upholding the state’s cross-appeal.
In a sole assignment of error, the state argued that the trial court erred in merging two of the trafficking in heroin counts.
“We agree,” wrote Grendell.
She noted that, for the controlled drug buy, Patterson had prepared a certain amount for sale to the confidential informant and retained some heroin for subsequent distribution to others.
“Thus, it was error for the trial court to merge the two counts,” Grendell concluded for the majority.
But Judge Colleen Mary O’Toole dissented with regard to the state’s appeal.
She held that the controlled buy was “one swift event” that “resulted in two counts of trafficking.”
She cited the Ohio Supreme Court’s holding in State v. Johnson, which declined to conduct a “blow-by-blow analysis in order to sustain multiple convictions.”
“By reversing the trial court’s decision to merge (the) counts, we are engaging in the parsing of conduct disapproved of by the Johnson court,” O’Toole wrote.
O’Toole joined Grendell to form the majority overruling Patterson’s appeal and upholding his convictions.
Wright and Grendell formed the majority upholding the state’s appeal and remanding the case for resentencing on the trafficking counts.
The case is cited State v. Patterson, 2015-Ohio-4423.
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