Opinion ID: 2689828
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Guilt-Phase Instructions

Text: In his sixteenth proposition, Campbell asserts that the trial court erred by refusing to instruct on murder as a lesser included offense of Count One, aggravated murder with prior calculation and design. R.C. 2903.02, murder, is a lesser included offense of R.C. 2903.01(A), aggravated murder with prior calculation and design. State v. Spirko (1991), 59 Ohio St.3d 1, 33, 570 N.E.2d 229, 263. But a court must charge on a lesser 40 included offense “only where the evidence presented at trial would reasonably support both an acquittal on the crime charged and a conviction upon the lesser included offense.” State v. Thomas (1988), 40 Ohio St.3d 213, 533 N.E.2d 286, paragraph two of the syllabus. Given that there is sufficient evidence to prove that Campbell killed Dials with prior calculation and design, it was not error to deny a jury instruction on the lesser included offense of murder. Campbell’s sixteenth proposition, therefore, is overruled. In his tenth proposition of law, Campbell contends that the trial court’s instruction on aggravated murder was circular because the instruction defined prior calculation and design in terms of purpose. Campbell contends that, in effect, this instruction told the jury to convict him of aggravated murder if it found that he killed purposefully. Campbell’s argument is incorrect. The instruction cannot be reasonably understood as equating prior calculation and design with purpose. The instructions made it clear that “prior calculation and design” is more than simply purpose, with language such as this: “A person acts with prior calculation and design when by engaging in a definite process of reasoning he forms a purpose to kill and plans the method he intends to use to cause death. 41 “The circumstances surrounding the homicide must show a scheme designed to carry out the calculated decision to cause the death. No definite period of time must elapse and no particular amount of consideration need be given, but acting on the spur of the moment or after momentary consideration of the purpose to cause death is not sufficient.” (Emphasis added.) These instructions make clear to any reasonable juror that purpose to kill is not the same thing as prior calculation and design and does not by itself satisfy the mens rea element of R.C. 2903.01(A). Therefore, Campbell’s tenth proposition is overruled. In the guilt phase, the trial court instructed the jury: “You may not discuss or consider the subject of punishment. Your duty is confined to the determination of the guilt or innocence of the Defendant.” (Emphasis added.) In his fifteenth proposition, Campbell contends that this instruction asked the jury to determine whether Campbell was innocent, when it should have been considering only whether the state had proved him guilty. According to Campbell, this shifted the burden of proof from the state to him. However, Campbell did not object at trial. This waived the alleged error. See, generally, State v. Long (1978), 53 Ohio St.2d 91, 7 O.O.3d 178, 372 N.E.2d 804, paragraph one of the syllabus. 42 No plain error exists here. An instruction “must be viewed in the context of the overall charge.” State v. Price (1979), 60 Ohio St.2d 136, 14 O.O.3d 379, 398 N.E.2d 772, paragraph four of the syllabus. The trial court instructed that Campbell was “presumed innocent unless and until his guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt,” and “must be acquitted    unless the State produces evidence which convinces you beyond a reasonable doubt of every essential element of the offense.” (Emphasis added.) Further, the trial court instructed the jury, as to each individual offense and each specification, to convict if it found that “the State of Ohio has proved beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements of the offense,” and to acquit if it found that “the State of Ohio has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of the offense.” In explaining the verdict forms, too, the trial court repeatedly told the jury that it must find that the state had proved Campbell’s guilt in order to convict and must return a verdict of not guilty if the state failed to prove any element. The jury must be presumed to have followed these instructions. Hence, Campbell cannot show that the jury’s verdict clearly would have been different but for the alleged error. As a result, plain error does not exist. Long, supra, at paragraph three of the syllabus. Campbell’s fifteenth proposition is therefore overruled. 43 The trial court instructed that purpose to kill “may be inferred from the use of” a deadly weapon. In his seventeenth proposition, Campbell contends that former R.C. 2903.01(D) required the trial court to tell the jury specifically that this inference was nonconclusive. That statute provided: “If a jury in an aggravated murder case is instructed that a person who commits or attempts to commit any offense listed in division (B) of this section may be inferred,    because the offense and the manner of its commission would be likely to produce death   , to have intended to cause the death of any person who is killed    during the commission of, attempt to commit, or flight from the commission of or attempt to commit the offense, the jury also shall be instructed that the inference is nonconclusive   .” (Emphasis added.) Am.Sub.S.B. No. 239, 146 Ohio Laws, Part VI, 10425. Former R.C. 2903.01(D) does not apply, since the trial court never instructed that the jury could infer purpose to kill from the commission of an underlying felony in a manner likely to produce death. See State v. Phillips (1995), 74 Ohio St.3d 72, 100, 656 N.E.2d 643, 668. Moreover, Campbell never requested such an instruction or called the alleged error to the trial court’s attention. Hence, any error is waived. Finding no plain error, we therefore overrule Campbell’s seventeenth proposition of law.