Opinion ID: 2975405
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: m. and returned to his own apartment.

Text: According to Gilbride, defendant said that he slept until 6:00 p.m. on September 9, and then took the bus to the Inn Between bar around 7:30 p.m. Gilbride testified that while going into the Inn Between bar, defendant noticed a light on in Snipes’s apartment and decided to visit her. According to Gilbride, defendant gained entry to the apartment through an unlocked door and claimed that he found her dead body in her bedroom. Defendant said that he unsuccessfully tried to pick her body off the floor, noticed that her hands had been cut off, and “freaked out.” Thinking “I’m going to get busted for this,” defendant washed her blood off his hands and clothes, tried wiping down everything he touched, removed evidence linking him to her apartment, and went home. Snipes was stabbed one hundred thirty-eight times. Bruising on her ankles indicated that she was alive when she was tied to the bed. Additionally, sperm was found in her vagina and anus. The medical examiner concluded that Snipes had died from strangulation and a slit throat either in the late afternoon or early evening of September 9. Police found defendant’s bloody fingerprint on the leg of the white chair draped over Snipes’s body, and police found another of defendant’s fingerprints on Snipes’s bedspread. An expert witness testified that the long linear blood patterns found on defendant’s tee-shirt and Snipes’s bedspread were applied by a long-bladed knife. Further, the blood patterns found on defendant’s tee-shirt were applied while the tee-shirt was lying flat, and not while defendant was wearing it. At trial, the prosecution introduced a set of defendant’s knives, including a meat cleaver, a knife, and a knife sharpener that defendant kept at the Quaker Square Hilton, where he worked as a chef. Christopher Hoffman, a Hilton co-worker, testified that he talked to defendant in August 1997 about the O.J. Simpson trial. According to Hoffman, defendant said that Simpson could have disposed of evidence against him by cutting off the victim’s hands and eliminating “fibers and hair and skin that might be found on the fingernails.” Bryan Tyson, a fellow inmate at the Summit County Jail, testified that during a jailhouse conversation, defendant admitted that he had killed Snipes. According to Tyson, defendant said that “he pushed himself on her, something in his mind snapped, she was hitting him, he lost his temper, did things he regretted, killed her.” Then, defendant said that he had “tried to make it look like a burglary,” admitted cutting off Snipes’s hands, and mentioned a hacksaw, and jokingly said “‘Don’t leave home without it,’ like the credit card commercial.” Defense case Jessica O’Neill, an acquaintance of defendant, talked on the phone with defendant on September 9. Phone records showed that O’Neill called defendant’s apartment and spoke with him at 3:12 p.m. and 4:50 p.m. She also claimed that she talked with defendant on the phone around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. Nos. 04-4138/4185/4243 Hartman v. Bagley Page 5 The defense also introduced evidence suggesting an alternative suspect, Jeff Nichols. Nichols lived across the hallway from Snipes’s apartment until he moved out of his apartment around September 1, 1997. Nichols worked as a handyman for the apartment building and had access to the landlord’s keys to other apartments. In January 1997, Jeffrey Barnes, a friend of Snipes, was visiting Snipes’s apartment when Nichols came to her door. According to Barnes, Nichols “got up right to her door and then he said, ‘Slit the bitch’s throat, cut her up,’ and called her a slut and all other kind of vulgar names.” Barnes reported this incident to the police upon hearing about Snipes’s murder. On an evening prior to September 1, 1997, Linda Zarski, a neighbor in Snipes’s apartment building, heard Snipes pounding on Nichols’s door and screaming that she wanted her shirt. On another occasion prior to the murder, Linda Kinebrew, a neighbor living at the apartment, “heard [Nichols] arguing, telling [Snipes] to let him in and she wouldn’t.” Carol Parcell, defendant’s mother, provided an alibi. Defendant lived at his mother’s apartment, and Parcell claimed that when she came home on September 9 at 6:15 p.m., her son was sleeping in his bedroom. According to Parcell, defendant woke up at 7:00 p.m., got ready, left the apartment at 7:30 p.m., and returned to the apartment around 8:15 p.m. Defendant testified on his own behalf. He admitted having sex with Snipes several times over the past year and during the early morning hours of September 9 when he was at Snipes’s apartment. After having sex, defendant returned to his apartment at about 3:30 a.m., slept until 6:15 p.m., left his apartment at 7:35 p.m., and returned to the Inn Between bar. Before reaching the Inn Between, defendant noticed that Snipes’s bathroom light was on at her apartment, and he decided to visit her to see if he could “get laid.” Defendant entered Snipes’s apartment through an unlocked door and found her mutilated body in the bedroom. Defendant tried to “get her up and put her on the bed    to see if there was anything else I could help with.” Defendant “freaked out” after noticing Snipes had no hands and realized he “could get in a lot of trouble” if he was placed at the scene. Thus, he washed her blood off his hands, wiped down the cupboards, chair handles, and anything else he might have touched, gathered whatever items he could find that belonged to him, and left Snipes’s apartment. Defendant “ran home” and threw the items taken from Snipes’s apartment into a nearby dumpster. Upon arriving home, defendant changed his shoes and hid the bloody tee-shirt so that his mother would not find it. Thereafter, defendant hurried back to the Inn Between bar and started drinking. When he was “semi-intoxicated,” defendant made the anonymous 911 calls reporting the location of Snipes’s body, admitted standing behind a tree watching the police arrive at Snipes’s apartment, and later approached the police to report that he had been at the apartment the previous evening. Defendant introduced photographs taken of his naked body following his arrest to show the absence of bruises and injuries. Defendant explained that a cut on his elbow had occurred at work while he was moving crates. Nos. 04-4138/4185/4243 Hartman v. Bagley Page 6 Defendant acknowledged talking with Chris Hoffman about the O.J. Simpson case but did not recall discussing anything about cutting off a victim’s hands. Defendant knew Tyson as a fellow inmate but denied making any jailhouse admissions that he murdered Snipes. Trial result The grand jury indicted defendant on two counts of aggravated murder, including one count of murder with prior calculation and design and one count of felony murder. A capital specification relating to murder during a kidnapping was included in the felony murder count. He was also charged with kidnapping and tampering with evidence. The jury found defendant guilty of all offenses and recommended death for Snipes’s murder. The trial court sentenced defendant to ten years for kidnapping, five years for tampering with evidence, and death for the aggravated murder of Snipes. State v. Hartman, 754 N.E.2d 1150, 1158-61 (Ohio 2001). The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed Hartman’s conviction and death sentence. Id. at 1183.