Youngstown Daily Legal News

Murder conviction affirmed for man who botched planned robbery

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 11, 2015

A murder conviction out of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas was recently affirmed on sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence grounds.

A panel of three judges in the 6th District Court of Appeals reviewed the case of Deitrekk Boone, who was found guilty of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, both with firearm specifications, following a bench trial.

According to the facts of the case, Boone was part of a group of five men who, in November 2012, planned an armed robbery of a suspected local drug dealer who worked out of an auto body shop in an industrial section of Toledo.

Court documents state that Chad Brown and Matthew Managhan were responsible for the background planning of the crime. Group member Jason Kuhns was responsible for preparation for the execution of the robbery and Boone and Devontae Harris were tasked with assisting Kuhns.

During the early morning hours of Nov. 19, 2012, Boone, Kuhns and Harris drove to the designated location and concealed themselves behind a dumpster to lie in wait for their target. When the victim, Joseph Lengel, arrived to open up his nearby fitness business for the day, he was mistaken for the actual target.

Case summary states that Boone approached Lengel and a struggle ensued. Since he was a physically fit gym owner, Lengel was able to defend himself until he was faced with a gun.

Boone fired two shots and missed before Harris ran up and shot Lengel once in the chest, killing him.

Boone and his accomplices then fled the scene in a white pickup truck, which was supplied for the robbery by Brown. The truck was later recovered; it was abandoned and set on fire in close proximity to Boone’s residence.

The subsequent police investigation into the murder found that surveillance videos from surrounding businesses showed the truck at the scene of the crime. Evidence from the truck led to Brown, who implicated the other members of the group.

Following an initial interview at the police station, Boone fled to Houston and adopted an alias, successfully evading capture for more than one year. Eventually, however, Boone was apprehended and transported to Ohio.

At the conclusion of the investigation, all members of the conspiracy entered into voluntary plea agreements with the state except for Boone, who chose to forego a jury trial and try his case to the bench.

After Boone was found guilty of the charges against him, the trial court imposed a 30-year prison term on the murder conviction and an eight-year prison term for the robbery, ordering the sentences to be served consecutively.

In the appeal that followed, Boone contended that his convictions were not supported by sufficient evidence. The court of appeals disagreed.

“We find that the record unambiguously established the propriety of the disputed guilty verdict,” Judge Thomas Osowik wrote on behalf of the court of appeals. “Notably, the prosecution presented consistent testimony from appellant’s codefendants, roommate and investigating officers all reflecting appellant’s guilt.”

Osowik pointed to a specific piece of evidence, aside from the surveillance video, that established without a doubt that the pickup truck found burning near Boone’s home was the one used during the murder.

“A bottle of ‘Assured’ brand aspirin that was recovered from inside the truck indisputably linked the truck to the crimes,” Osowik wrote.

The box from the bottle was found at the murder scene, while the bottle, intact, was found in the truck. The lot numbers on each package were found to match.

Papers with unique markings on them were also found in the truck. The markings matched those found on notebooks that were recovered in a search of Boone’s home.

The state’s key witness, Miara McMillian, was Boone’s roommate. She presented uncontroverted testimony that she heard Boone and his friends discussing their crime and the fact that “the wrong person was robbed.”

“We find that the record of evidence contains ample evidence to convince a rational trier of fact of appellant’s guilt,” Osowik wrote. “We therefore find appellant’s first assignment of error not well-taken.”

In his second assignment of error, Boone challenged the manifest weight of the evidence. Again, the appellate panel found little merit to his claims.

Osowik pointed to the testimony of Boone’s ex-girlfriend, whom he used as an alibi when he testified on his own behalf. Boone told the trial court that he was with his girlfriend at the time of the murder.

“Notably, appellant’s own girlfriend did not corroborate (his) alibi claim,” Osowik wrote.

The girlfriend testified that, at the time of the shooting, she was calling police stations looking for Boone because she “thought he was doing something dumb.”

Phone records confirmed the girlfriend’s testimony.

The reviewing court also pointed out that Boone fled to avoid capture. When he was apprehended and put in jail to await trial, he made several incriminating phone calls.

“While awaiting trial, appellant made several phone calls from prison covertly using the phone pin code of a different inmate in a failed effort to avoid evidence that he contacted Brown trying to influence her testimony in exchange for money,” Osowik wrote.

Boone tried to contact other witnesses and pay them off too, but his attempts failed as did his attempt to kill the key witness, McMillian.

A taped conversation of Boone suggesting that a third party kill McMillian was played for the trial court. In it, Boone suggests that the third party “plug that b----” and then gives a detailed description of McMillian’s home and its location.

“Appellant’s convictions were not against the manifest weight of the evidence,” Osowik wrote, noting that there was ample, convincing evidence supporting Boone’s convictions.

“The record contains no evidence in support of the notion that a manifest miscarriage of justice occurred,” Osowik concluded.

The judgment of the Lucas County court was affirmed with Judges Mark Pietrykowski and James Jensen concurring.

The case is cited State v. Boone, 2015-Ohio-2944.

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