Opinion ID: 3149633
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dean’s letters

Text: {¶ 97} Detective Estep testified that the police obtained a search warrant and seized numerous letters that Dean had sent to Manns, an inmate at the Lebanon 24 January Term, 2015 Correctional Institute. Estep also learned that Sions had received numerous letters from Dean. Estep talked to Sions about the letters, and the police later collected them from Sions’s house. {¶ 98} During its case-in-chief, the state introduced redacted excerpts from letters that Dean had mailed to Manns and Sions before his trial, but the letters themselves were not admitted. Dean raises various objections to the contents of the excerpts and argues that they should not have been admitted. {¶ 99} First, Dean argues that several excerpts from his letters should not have been admitted, because they did nothing more than show his lack of remorse for Arnold’s death. Dean complains about the following excerpt in a letter to Manns: “They act like I killed the president.” Dean also complains about the comments in another letter: “Remember they said they found a .40 Caliber pistol in my house? Well that’s the type of pistol dude got killed with, but there are no prints at all on the gun.” Dean’s statements in these letters were probative of his consciousness of guilt. Thus, this evidence was relevant to a noncharacter issue and admissible under Evid.R. 404(B). {¶ 100} Dean argues that the following excerpt from a letter to Sions should not have been admitted, because it also showed his lack of remorse: “Anyway this dude walks up to me and says, ‘that dude you and your boy killed was my cousin’. I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t give a fuck!’ ” However, Dean’s response to the accusation was admissible as an implied admission of guilt. {¶ 101} Dean also complains that an excerpt in a letter to Sions was improperly presented to the jury: I get so angry sometimes, and I lose control.    It’s the reason a man I have never laid eyes on before is in his grave and his children are wondering where their daddy is and his mother has to cry herself to sleep at night because her son was shot down like an 25 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO animal for no reason other than he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. What’s so sad and it scares me when I think about it is the fact that I don’t care. {¶ 102} These comments were also an implied admission of guilt and not barred by Evid.R. 404(B). See State v. Conway, 109 Ohio St.3d 412, 2006-Ohio2815, 848 N.E.2d 810, ¶ 66. {¶ 103} Second, Dean claims that excerpts from two of his letters should not have been admitted because they showed his lack of remorse and vulgarity and that he was a dangerous individual. Initially, he complains about the admissibility of a letter he wrote to Manns: “I made my choices and I knew the consequences of my actions. I have lived my life the way I wanted, I have always done what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it and fuck what anybody had to say about it.” These were probative of Dean’s consciousness of guilt. {¶ 104} In a letter to Sions, Dean wrote, “If I could just get my hands on that motherfucker I would crush him. If I could get my hands on him, there would be another mother mourning the loss of her child.” Once again, Dean’s comments demonstrated his consciousness of guilt and were admissible. {¶ 105} Third, Dean argues that excerpts from other letters should not have been admitted, because they showed he was a dangerous individual with an unabashed disregard for the law. In a letter to Manns, Dean wrote: “Life’s a motherfucker ain’t it bro? This is what happens when you live life in the streets and make your own rules and laws. You lose everything every time. I will carry my burden with my head held high.” Similarly, Dean wrote Sions: “But I got caught up living the fast life, doing what comes natural to a beast like me, doing what I wanted, when I wanted, and how I wanted.” In a similar vein, Dean wrote: “Because at that point if I wanted something, I took it and damn the consequences. 26 January Term, 2015 But that kind of thinking has led me to where I am right now, locked in a concrete and steel cage.” {¶ 106} These excerpts all demonstrated Dean’s disregard for the consequences of his actions and were relevant to prove his involvement in the offenses. But Dean’s statements: “I will take some money, some jewelry, some dope. I will take your car and everything you own, but I would never take no pussy” were irrelevant and not admissible under Evid.R. 404(B). Nevertheless, the impact of these comments was minimal, considering the other compelling evidence of Dean’s guilt. {¶ 107} During the trial, Dean argued that there were no eyewitnesses identifying him at the scene of Arnold’s murder and insisted that Wade was solely responsible as the killer. Yet Dean’s letters contain bits of information that show his involvement in Arnold’s murder and convey his consciousness of guilt for Arnold’s murder and the other offenses. See State v. Hanna, 95 Ohio St.3d 285, 2002-Ohio-2221, 767 N.E.2d 678, ¶ 86. {¶ 108} The record shows that the state was careful in limiting the information that was contained in the excerpts that went to the jury. The evidence of other acts was not offered for the purpose of proving Dean’s bad character. Moreover, information that cast Dean’s character in a negative light was kept to a minimum. Thus, we hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the excerpts of Dean’s letters to Sions and Manns.