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Judges rule evidence was sufficient to convict man of complicity to gas station robbery
JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 23, 2013
A 12th District Court of Appeals panel ruled this week that a man was properly convicted of complicity to aggravated robbery after evidence showed he helped to plan and encourage a gas station robbery.
The three-judge appellate panel rejected Darrell Mays’ claims that his conviction was against the manifest weight of the evidence and was not supported by sufficient evidence.
“Given the evidence presented, the jury clearly did not lose its way and create such a manifest miscarriage of justice such that the conviction must be reversed and a new trial ordered,” 12th District Presiding Judge Robert Hendrickson wrote for the court.
Case summary states that a Thortons gas station in Miami Township was robbed in November 2009.
The state arrested two men as the principal actors and argued that Mays planned and encouraged the robbery as well as provided the handgun used to execute it.
Mays attended a jury trial in April 2012 in the Clermont County Court of Common Pleas, where Steven Rider testified that he committed the robbery with the help of another man.
Rider stated he heard Mays encourage the other man multiple times throughout the day of the robbery and heard Mays tell him not to back out and “to just go and get it done.”
Rider stated the gun they used belonged to Mays’ girlfriend but that Mays controlled the gun. He also explained that he split the money taken from Thortons with Mays and the man who helped Rider commit the robbery.
A detective from the Miami Township Police Department also testified that the gun taken from Mays’ home resembled the one seen in the gas station’s security footage.
While he said he could not positively identify the gun using the video, the detective testified that he could not find any differences between the one seen in the video and the one recovered from Mays’ home.
The jury found Mays guilty of complicity to aggravated robbery and he was sentenced to five years in prison.
On appeal, Mays challenged the weight and sufficiency of the evidence against him.
“Specifically, appellant argues the state did not meet its burden in proving appellant was complicit to aggravated robbery as the state’s ‘whole case rested on the testimony of Rider,’ who provided vague, speculative, and incomplete testimony,” Hendrickson wrote.
The appellate panel held that the state was responsible for showing that Mays encouraged, supported, advised, or cooperated with the robbery.
It found the state presented Rider’s testimony that Mays encouraged one of the acting robbers, assisted by allowing the use of the handgun and cooperated by sharing the proceeds.
“In light of the jury’s verdict, it is apparent that the jury found Rider’s testimony to be credible and chose to believe Rider’s testimony and the state’s version of events over appellant’s denial of any involvement in the robbery,” Hendrickson stated.
The judges ruled that it was within the jury’s jurisdiction to find the testimony credible.
Accordingly, they overruled Mays’ arguments and affirmed the Clermont County Court of Common Pleas’ judgment.
Fellow 12th District judges Robin Piper and Stephen Powell joined Hendrickson to form the majority.
The case is cited State v. Mays, case No. 2013-Ohio-1952.
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