The Akron Legal News

Man who stabbed girlfriend 42 times loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 17, 2014

Last week, the 11th District Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas which sentenced Ernest Boles to 10 years in prison after he was found guilty of stabbing his girlfriend more than 40 times.

Boles was indicted on charges of attempted aggravated murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, kidnapping, disrupting public services, endangering children and domestic violence.

He filed a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity but the court conducted a competency hearing and determined that Boles was competent to stand trial.

Following a plea hearing, it was also determined that Boles was sane at the time that he committed the offenses.

The case proceeded to trial where testimony established that, on Sept. 19, 2011, Brittany Hall, Boles’ girlfriend, was driving with Boles and the couples’ two young sons.

Boles and Hall were arguing and Hall stated that she wanted to break up.

Following the argument, they returned home and Brittany made a phone call.

Boles approached her from behind and began stabbing her.

Hall tried to escape but Boles climbed on top of her and continued to stab her in front of her 5-year-old daughter.

Hall screamed, “Mo (Boles’ nickname), stop you’re killing me.”

Robert Butcher, who was on the phone with Hall at the time the attack began, heard Hall’s screams as well as children crying in the background before the line went dead.

Butcher drove to Hall’s house with his fiancé and they struggled to unlock the door.

Eventually, Hall’s daughter let them inside the house.

Butcher testified that the young girl was “in hysterics” and said, “Mo killed my mom. He stabbed her to death.”

At that time, Boles was already gone. He had taken the batteries out of Hall’s phone, locked the door and taken the couples’ son.

Hall was taken to the hospital where doctors determined that she was stabbed 42 times.

She survived the attack but sustained life-threatening injuries, including a punctured lung.

Ashtabula Police apprehended Boles during a traffic stop.

Deputy Steve Murphy testified that he noticed dried blood on Boles’ hands and blood stains on his shirt and other clothing in the vehicle.

A forensic scientist testified that the blood on Boles’ hands contained Hall’s DNA.

Boles maintained that Hall had attacked him with a knife and that she had sustained her injuries during a struggle over the weapon.

After the stabbing and Boles’ subsequent arrest, Hall admitted that she continued to communicate with Boles while he was in jail.

She purchased phone cards for him to call her and sent him letters stating that she loved him along with photographs of her and the children.

Boles moved to present the love letters as evidence during trial but the court ruled them irrelevant and denied his request.

At the conclusion of the trial, three counts of kidnapping were dismissed but the jury found Boles guilty of the remaining 11 counts.

He was ordered to serve a total of 10 years in prison.

Upon appeal, Boles challenged the trial court’s decision not to admit Hall’s letters as evidence as well as the court’s admission of Boles’ other bad acts.

The three-judge appellate panel reviewed the trial transcript and found that, during cross-examination, defense counsel elicited testimony from Hall that she had committed misdemeanor falsification in the past.

Hall admitted that the misdemeanor was in relation to another domestic violence complaint against Boles, which he had asked her to drop.

On re-direct, Hall testified about Boles’ controlling behavior and her inability to “run her life” without him.

“This line of questioning was in response to the issues raised during cross-examination,” wrote Judge Diane V. Grendell on behalf of the court of appeals. “Defense counsel opened to door to such testimony regarding the issue, and thus, error cannot be claimed.”

Even if it was error to admit the testimony, the appellate panel agreed that it was harmless in light of the “overwhelming evidence to support the fact that Boles committed the crime.”

The appellate panel also held that the admission of the letters was properly denied because they were irrelevant to the events that occurred on the night of the stabbing.

“The mere fact that (Hall) has continued to communicate with Boles does not provide any indication of his intent at the time of the crime, nor does it show whether he intended to kill her,” wrote Judge Grendell. “Her feelings and decision to remain in contact have no bearing on the elements of the crimes for which he was convicted.”

Boles also argued that his convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence and that his intent to kill Hall was never established.

Though he tried to prove that Hall was the initial aggressor, the court of appeals found that Boles suffered only minor scratches to his fingers, providing little support to his theory that Hall tried to attack him.

“Further, the assertion that he was ‘wrestling’ with her for the knife is dubious, given that (Hall) was stabbed such a great number of times,” wrote Judge Grendell.

The appellate panel found no reason to second guess the jury’s decision to believe Hall’s version of events over Boles’.

The judgment of the Ashtabula County court was subsequently affirmed with judges Cynthia Rice and Colleen O’Toole concurring.

The case is cited State v. Boles, 2014-Ohio-744.

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