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Court finds no evidence to overturn armed robbery conviction
JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 15, 2014
In a recently released opinion, the 10th District Court of Appeals affirmed a man’s conviction for aggravated robbery with a firearm specification.
Wyteia Webster appealed from his conviction in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and contended that there was not sufficient weight to show he had a weapon or committed a theft and that his convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence.
Upon review, the three-judge appellate panel found that Webster’s case stemmed from a robbery and the June 2011 shooting death of Islam Basyouny.
At a jury trial, Monteria Watkins and Keith Griffea testified that they were in a car with Basyouny when they met Webster to buy drugs.
They indicated that Webster got in the car with them and they asked to see the drugs before they purchased them.
Griffea testified that instead of showing them the pills, Webster put a gun in his face and said “give me the f-ing money.”
Basyouny then started to drive off as the gun was fired.
Basyouny was struck in the back, Webster fled the car and the group drove away. Basyouny later died of his injuries.
The jury found Webster guilty of aggravated robbery with a firearm specification and he was acquitted of charges for murder and aggravated murder.
“No evidence indicated that appellant was not the person who had the gun in the car. No evidence indicated anyone else was arrested,” Judge Gary Tyack wrote for the court.
The three-judge appellate panel maintained that the jury may have believed, after hearing the evidence, that the gun discharged accidentally as Basyouny quickly accelerated.
It stated that such a belief would explain Webster’s acquittals for the most serious charges.
“However, the testimony at trial clearly showed that appellant attempted to obtain the property of another (money) while armed with a deadly weapon,” Judge Tyack stated.
The judges ruled that the testimony clearly demonstrated all of the necessary elements of aggravated robbery, specifically, that Webster used force of threat of force and a deadly weapon while committing a theft offense.
They found that the gun was considered a deadly weapon because it was proven that it was operable when it discharged and killed Basyouny.
“The evidence was clearly sufficient to support a conviction for aggravated robbery with a firearm specification. There really was no significant evidence to weight against the prosecution’s case,” Judge Tyack continued.
The judges found that the jury was within its discretion when it found the witness testimony credible and overruled Webster’s assignment of error.
Judges Julia Dorrian and Amy O’Grady joined Judge Tyack to affirm the lower court’s judgment.
The case is cited State v. Webster, 2014-Ohio-1645.
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