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State v. Hill7/5/2001
, ran across the street, and came up to the front porch. When she got there, she saw Harry Sisco lying face down in a shrub. Lehman ran to her house and called 911 at 6:47 p.m.
Two witnesses who were sitting on a nearby front porch that evening both saw a man in a dark car (identified by one as a black Ford Probe) move from the driver's side of the car to the passenger's side. Both witnesses then heard a loud bang. One of the witnesses testified that she saw the occupant of the vehicle move back to the driver's seat and drive away. She was not certain who the man in the car was, but she remarked to the other person, "Did that look like Cliff, Harry's son, to you?" The other witness testified that after the bang, a woman was running and shouting for someone to call 911 and that Harry Sisco had been shot.
Terry Chandler retrieved the rifle from appellee later that evening. As appellee handed Chandler the gun from the window of the car he was driving, Chandler saw shells scattered on the seat of appellee's car. Appellee also handed the shells to Chandler. Appellee told Chandler not to tell anyone that he had seen appellee at this time, and appellee drove away.
Chandler feared that Harry Sisco had been killed with his gun. He did not report his encounter with appellee to the police. When the police later questioned him, Chandler initially lied and told them he had thrown the gun into the Ohio River. Chandler turned the gun over to police nearly six months after the murder.
On the evening of September 15, appellee asked to borrow an acquaintance's motorcycle. When permission was refused, appellee took the motorcycle anyway and rode off. Appellee subsequently led police on a high-speed chase and was eventually apprehended.
When police searched Avery's car, they found two rounds of .243 ammunition. A firearms expert for the state testified that at one time the rounds had been chambered in Chandler's rifle.
At trial some stipulations were presented to the jury. One stipulation was that appellee's blood was drawn at 1:40 a.m. on September 16, 1997, and that this sample revealed a blood-alcohol level of "0.14 grams percent by weight." Other stipulations included the following: (1) no gunpowder particles were found on appellee's glasses, hat, watch, or clothing; (2) no fingerprints were obtained from the ammunition rounds found in Avery's car; (3) only one usable fingerprint was lifted from the car, and it was not appellee's; (4) no usable fingerprints were lifted from the rifle; (5) no usable fingerprints were lifted from the motorcycle; (6) no gunshot residue was discovered in the car; and (7) no gunshot residue was discovered on appellee, Harry Sisco, or Richard Sisco.
After the state rested, appellee did not call any witnesses, and appellee did not take the stand to testify to the jury. After deliberations, the jury found appellee guilty of aggravated murder and of both specifications accompanying that count, not guilty of grand theft of a motor vehicle, but guilty of the lesser included offense of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, guilty of fleeing and eluding, and guilty of having weapons while under disability and the firearm specification on that count.
After appellee was sentenced, he appealed to the Court of Appeals for Fairfield County, raising six assignments of error. The court of appeals reversed the convictions, upholding two of appellee's assignments of error and finding the remaining four moot. As one ground for its decision, the court of appeals found that reversal was warranted because the trial court committed "structural error" in seating an anonymous jury for appellee's trial, even though appellee h
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