Portage County Legal News

Murderer who claimed jurors slept loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 2, 2014

A panel of three judges in the 2nd District Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas properly denied postconviction relief to a defendant who claimed his jury was sleeping during his murder trial.

The defendant, Roderick Montgomery, was convicted in six counts of aggravated murder, six counts of murder, and two counts each of aggravated robbery, kidnapping, felonious assault and aggravated robbery after he committed a home invasion with five other men that resulted in the shooting death of Patrick Hall.

Montgomery’s convictions were merged and the trial court sentenced him to 31 years to life in prison.

Last year, his direct appeal to the Second District was overruled.

Case summary from that opinion states that, on Dec. 9, 2010, Montgomery kicked open the front door of Hall’s home where he was asleep with his girlfriend, Mercedes D.

Mercedes’ 9-year-old son, D.J., was standing in the living room when Montgomery broke in. Montgomery held a gun to D.J.’s head.

Hall and Mercedes were awoken by the sound of men’s voices in the house.

While Hall called for D.J. from the bedroom door, Mercedes called 911 and used a key fob to set off an alarm located in the dining room.

At trial, Mercedes testified that a man with a mask entered her bedroom and ordered her to shut off the alarm.

In the dining room, she came face to face with Montgomery, who was not wearing a mask and who she later identified in a photo lineup and in the court room as one of her assailants.

Montgomery grabbed Mercedes by her hair, pulled her down the hall and ordered her to kneel with her head between her legs.

In the master bedroom, one of Montgomery’s accomplices held Hall at gunpoint and repeatedly asked him where the money was. Hall answered that there was no money.

According to one of the perpetrators, Demond Johnigan, Hall lunged at him and he shot Hall.

When Hall attempted to get up, Johnigan shot him a second time.

Johnigan escaped into the backyard and found the other men standing in the street.

Their getaway car was a black conversion van, but before escaping they committed one more robbery of a motorist who had just pulled up to a nearby house.

Later, the men found out that Hall died from the gunshot wounds.

Johnigan was arrested on unrelated charges a week later and subsequently confessed to the murder and told of the involvement of the other men, including Montgomery.

While his direct appeal was pending, Montgomery filed a petition for postconviction relief.

He asked that his convictions be vacated because two jurors were sleeping during his trial which violated his constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury.

The Montgomery County court held an evidentiary hearing where nine witnesses testified. The trial court subsequently found that the jurors were not necessarily sleeping and it denied the petition.

Montgomery appealed from that judgment, arguing that the trial court committed prejudicial error by denying his petition and that there was plenty of evidence that the jurors were in fact asleep.

The court of appeals consulted the trial court’s decision denying Montgomery’s petition where it summarized the testimony and evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing.

The lower court noted that Montgomery’s aunt testified that one juror was “dozing for three to four minutes” during D.J.’s testimony.

She also alleged that another juror was asleep for seven to eight minutes during closing argument.

“Her testimony contradicted that of Jeff Gramza (Montgomery’s attorney) who saw two jurors with their eyes closed for at least two minutes,” the trial court wrote, also noting that it was unclear whether the sleeping took place during the state’s oral argument or that of the defense.

The testifying witnesses acknowledged that some people close their eyes to concentrate and Montgomery himself testified that he has closed his eyes without being asleep.

“All of the state’s witnesses noted that the trial was a short one and was one with riveting testimony concerning the home invasion and murder,” the trial court wrote. “Judge O’Connell testified that the energy level and tension were pretty high during closing arguments and he doubted a juror could sleep seven to eight minutes during that portion of the trial.”

Based on the judgment entry, the appellate panel found that the lower court conducted a thorough evidentiary hearing.

“Ultimately, the trial court credited the state’s witnesses over Montgomery’s witnesses,” wrote Judge Mike Fain for the court of appeals. “The credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given to their testimony are primarily matters for the trier of fact to resolve.”

Fain cited another 2nd District case, State v. Perkins, where an appellate panel ruled that a defendant’s petition for postconviction relief will always fail if the defendant had knowledge of juror misconduct during trial but did not raise the issue at the trial level or in his direct appeal.

Because he knew of the sleeping jurors at trial but failed to bring it up, Montgomery shifted the blame to his attorney, arguing that he received ineffective assistance of counsel because his attorney failed to bring the sleeping jury to the trial court’s attention.

“But in its decision denying Montgomery’s petition for postconviction relief, the trial court found that there were no sleeping jurors,” wrote Judge Fain, “which finding is equally dispositive of the ineffective assistance of counsel argument.”

Finding little merit to Montgomery’s claims, the appellate panel affirmed the trial court’s decision denying the petition for postconviction relief.

Judges Michael Hall and Jeffrey Welbaum concurred.

The case is cited State v. Montgomery, 2014-Ohio-4108.

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