Youngstown Daily Legal News

Murderer who strangled victim loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: December 22, 2014

An aggravated murder conviction was upheld recently when a three-judge panel in Ohio’s 9th District Court of Appeals ruled that the verdict against Shannon Mount, imposed in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.

Case summary states that, on May 31, 2012, Todd McHaddon arrived at the home of his father, Leonard McHaddon, to find him dead on the floor of his bedroom.

Upon further inspection of the house, Todd noticed that many items were missing, including a TV, computer, wallet, cellphone and checkbook.

McHaddon’s 2008 white Pontiac Grand Prix was also missing from the garage.

That same day, police apprehended Mount after a high-speed chase through the streets of Akron.

Mount was driving the Grand Prix registered to McHaddon and police discovered McHaddon’s personal property, including the computer, wallet and cellphone on the back seat.

Mount was indicted on one count of aggravated murder with a repeat violent offender specification, one count of aggravated robbery and receiving stolen property.

The case proceeded to a trial after which the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. The Summit County court sentenced Mount to a total of 40 years to life in prison.

In his direct appeal to the 9th District court, Mount argued that his murder and robbery convictions were not supported by sufficient evidence because the state failed to produce any evidence of prior calculation and design.

He also contended that the evidence did not weigh heavily in favor of conviction.

The court of appeals reviewed the evidence and record of the trial proceedings where the state presented testimony from 25 witnesses.

Neighbors testified that, on the night of McHaddon’s death, they saw a man walking repeatedly from the house to the garage and that he was wearing either a very tight shirt or had a tattoo-covered torso.

An acquaintance of Mount’s testified that Mount tried to sell him a computer and TV from an all-white Pontiac and said he needed money to leave the state.

When Mount was apprehended, he was shirtless and police testified that he “was heavily tattooed across the whole front of his chest.”

Dr. Dorothy Dean, a forensic pathologist and deputy medical examiner at the Summit County Medical Examiner’s Officer, performed McHaddon’s autopsy.

She testified that the autopsy showed evidence of ligature strangulation, meaning that McHaddon was strangled to death with an object of narrow diameter.

Dean also told the trial court that McHaddon was “medically fragile” due to “some very severe medical diseases.”

McHaddon, she stated, was obese, weighing 374 pounds and standing 5 feet 4 inches tall.

He suffered from obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, tobacco abuse, high cholesterol, depression, anxiety, spinal stenosis and degeneration of his intervertebral disks.

As part of his defense, Mount argued that the circumstances of how the body was found proved that the death was accidental.

At trial, it was established that McHaddon was found with his pants and underwear around his knees and his shirt pulled close to his neck.

Mount argued that the scene, coupled with the death by strangulation, “certainly would indicate the possibility of accidental death during a consensual act of homosexual erotic asphyxiation that went too far.”

Another witness, Nick McCurry testified that he and McHaddon had found each other on an adult website known as “Adult Friend Finder” and that they had met in person on two occasions during which they had sexual encounters.

Mount could not be excluded as a contributor to DNA found on McHaddon’s shorts and a beer can found in the home.

“Considering the evidence as a whole, the jury could reasonably conclude that (Mount) spent time with Mr. McHaddon then chose to murder him at a time when they were alone for the purpose of stealing Mr. McHaddon’s car and personal property,” wrote Judge Carla Moore for the court of appeals.

The appellate panel noted that Mount also presented the testimony of his mother at trial, who told the jury that Mount would often go to McHaddon’s home to help him around the house and with repairs and that Mount even lived with McHaddon for a short while.

But the court of appeals found that the mother’s testimony only proved that Mount was familiar with the house and had intimate knowledge of McHaddon’s belongings, health problems and schedule.

“Eye witness testimony established the fact that Mr. Mount spent several hours with McHaddon on May 30, 2012 and was seen driving his car and attempting to sell his personal items for the stated purpose of obtaining money to leave the state,” wrote Moore.

Additionally, the panel held that strangulation does not cause an instantaneous death, noting Dr. Dean’s testimony that, for a person of normal health, it usually takes 15 seconds of strangulation to cause a loss of consciousness and five minutes of continuous lack of oxygen to the brain to cause death.

“Mr. Mount had sufficient time and opportunity to contemplate his actions during the course of the murder, and could have chosen to stop the strangulation prior to killing Mr. McHaddon,” wrote Moore.

The appellate panel ruled that Mount’s convictions for aggravated murder and robbery were supported by sufficient evidence.

Moore also wrote that, throughout the trial, the jury heard evidence that arguably supported Mount’s alternate theory of McHaddon’s death including the testimony of McCurry and photos of the crime scene.

But Moore pointed to Dean’s testimony that McHaddon’s death, even if it happened during a sexual encounter, was not an accident.

“This was intentional,” Dean testified. “Even if this would have been violent sex, putting something around someone’s neck is intentional. You have to know the risk of death is there.”

“In the present matter, the jury clearly believed the state’s theory of Mr. McHaddon’s death: that Mr. Mount purposely, with prior calculation and design, or purposely before, during or immediately after committing aggravated robbery, strangled Mr. McHaddon in order to steal his household belongings and car,” wrote Moore. “As this court has repeatedly stated, a conviction is not against the manifest weight because the jury chose to credit the state’s version of the events.”

Unable to conclude that the jury lost its way in reaching a verdict, the court of appeals affirmed the judgment of the Summit County court and upheld Mount’s convictions.

Presiding Judge Even Belfance and Judge Jennifer Hensal concurred.

The case is cited State v. Mount, 2014-Ohio-5334.

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