The Akron Legal News

Nightclub shooter partially wins appeal, but murder conviction is upheld

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: May 27, 2014

The judgment of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas was partially affirmed recently when the 8th District Court of Appeals ruled that DaJhon Walker was properly found guilty of killing Antwon Shannon.

Walker was convicted by jury of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and having a weapon while under disability.

The district’s three-judge appellate panel, however, vacated the aggravated murder conviction when it found that there was no evidence of prior calculation and design and that Walker killed Shannon spontaneously.

Case summary states that Shannon was at a nightclub in Cleveland with his friend, Ivor Anderson, in the early morning hours of Feb. 19, 2012.

At approximately 1:30 a.m., a man later identified as Robert Steele spilled some champagne on Anderson while he and Shannon were on the dance floor.

Anderson testified at trial that he shrugged and indicated that he didn’t care about the spill.

He told Steele, “you’re doing too much,” and that was the only verbal exchange between them that evening.

After the spill, Anderson said he saw Steele walk over to three other men, Walker and Otis Johnson and Derrell Shabazz, Walker’s codefendants.

He said it seemed like the group was “plotting against” him.

While speaking to a female friend, Anderson heard someone yell and then Steele struck him in the head with a champagne bottle. Both men fell and tussled on the ground.

A large fight broke out among Shannon, Anderson, Walker, Shabazz, Johnson and other nightclub patrons.

Anderson said he was on the ground fighting Steele and was tackled by a female when he heard a gunshot.

Tennison Malcolm, a medical student who was at the club with friends, testified that he heard the gunshot and ran into the bathroom.

While he was in there, Shannon walked in looking confused and Malcolm asked if he had been shot.

Shannon replied that he did not know but when Malcolm asked him to lift up his shirt, he saw blood coming from Shannon’s chest.

Malcolm put pressure on Shannon’s chest and dialed 911 but Shannon soon became unresponsive.

After police responded, Anderson could not locate Shannon but saw that his car was still in the parking lot.

He determined that Shannon was the individual who got shot and went to a local hospital where he learned that Shannon had died.

The entire incident was captured by a surveillance camera which was introduced to the jury.

The jury saw Steele strike Anderson with the bottle and the subsequent fight that erupted.

Shannon was then seen trying to break up the fight and pulling a woman off of Anderson.

Walker could be seen punching Shannon and also hitting him with a bottle.

The video then showed Walker pull something out of his waistband and walk behind a pillar next to the dance floor. The fight spilled over to the area next to the pillar.

The gunshot was seen as a large flash directly behind Shannon and then Walker was seen running from behind the pillar, across the dance floor and toward an exit door.

Shabazz met up with Walker and the two left the night club together.

As Walker ran, he could be seen fumbling with his waistband.

The trial court ordered Walker to serve life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years on the aggravated murder charge.

The murder and felonious assault were merged with the aggravated murder for sentencing.

Walker was also ordered to serve a consecutive three years for firearm specifications, two years for another felonious assault and nine months for having weapons under disability.

Upon appeal, Walker challenged the sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence supporting all of the charges but the appellate panel found merit in only one of his arguments.

“Walker agues the state failed to prove that the shooting was the result of prior calculation and design,” wrote Presiding Judge Mary Kilbane for the court of appeals. “He maintains that the shooting was a spur-of-the-moment act.”

Judge Kilbane cited the Ohio Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Revised Code’s requirement of “prior calculation and design” to prove aggravated murder.

According to the high court, the phrase requires evidence of “more than the few moments of deliberation permitted in common law interpretations of the former murder statute” and “a scheme designed to implement the calculated decision to kill.”

The appellate panel determined that there was no evidence that Walker knew Shannon or had a strained relationship with him.

It also held that Walker never gave any thought to choosing the murder site.

“Walker walks behind a pillar which is next to the dance floor. The video then shows the fight spilling over to the area by the pillar Walker went behind,” wrote Judge Kilbane. “Thus, Walker did not choose the murder site or pursue Shannon. Rather, the video shows that the murder site came to him instead.”

The court of appeals concluded that Walker’s actions were the result of an “almost spontaneous eruption of events” and a “chaotic situation that spiraled out of control.”

The state countered that, after the champagne spill, Steele went over to speak with Walker and the other codefendants, proving that they discussed a plan to murder Shannon.

But Judge Kilbane noted that there was no audio of their discussion and that “it is not unusual for a group of people to stand together and converse while at a nightclub.”

Accordingly, the panel concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove Walker committed premeditated murder and it vacated the aggravated murder count while upholding the murder conviction.

The remainder of Walker’s convictions were also affirmed but the case was remanded to the Cuyahoga County court for it to resentence Walker.

Judges Patricia Blackmon and Melody Stewart joined Judge Kilbane to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Walker, 2014-Ohio-1827.

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