ANNIE YAMSON
Daily Reporter
The 11th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed the judgment of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas ruling that Frederick Galloway was properly convicted of burglary.
In his appeal, Galloway challenged the manifest weight of the evidence supporting his conviction as well as the trial court’s denial of his motion for acquittal.
He claimed he thought he had permission to enter the house in which he trespassed and that he left the moment he realized he was in the wrong place.
According to case summary, the victim, Stephanie Rosier and her two children, were asleep in their rental house in Madison on May, 4, 2012 at approximately 1:15 a.m.
Rosier had left the front door unlocked because she was expecting her ex-boyfriend to come by and pick up money.
She told police that she was awoken by the dog barking and believed that her ex-boyfriend had arrived, so she called down to him, “Honey the money is on the counter.”
When she opened her eyes, Rosier saw a man she did not recognize standing about two feet away from her bed.
Rosier made a startled noise and the man ran into the bedroom doorway and stood there.
Rosier pretended to be asleep until he left the house and she proceeded to call the police.
When the police asked if anything was missing she told them that some lingerie that had been sitting on the edge of her bed was gone.
The police obtained information regarding past police responses to the residence and came up with Galloway’s name.
One of the officers on the scene recalled that he had conducted a traffic stop of Galloway around midnight that same day.
After conducting a search for his vehicle, police found Galloway asleep in his car a short walking distance from Rosier’s home.
They also found a black garter belt and stocking in his pocket.
Galloway claimed the items belonged to his girlfriend but he could not identify her.
The arresting officers testified in court that they believed Galloway was highly intoxicated.
During the trial, the jury heard a recording of a police interview in which Galloway stated that he entered Rosier’s house because he thought that his cousin, who he had not spoken to for eight months, still lived there.
He maintained that, once he discovered that someone else was there, he left the home.
When he testified, Galloway claimed he had permission to stay with his cousin in the past and that he had walked over to what he believed to be her house because he was stopped by police earlier in the night and was told that he could not drive because he was too intoxicated.
He explained that, while he was standing in the doorway, he stepped on something and picked it up.
This later turned out to be the lingerie found in his pocket and he denied initially telling the police that it belonged to his girlfriend.
The jury found Galloway guilty of second-degree felony burglary after it concluded that his testimony was “suspect” and that he had entered the home without permission and committed a theft while inside the house.
The trial court sentenced Galloway to a term of three years in prison, to be served consecutively to a prison term imposed in a separate Lake County case involving two other break-ins.
The 11th District subsequently considered Galloway’s appeal.
It held that, in order to convict Galloway of burglary, the state had to prove he did “by force, stealth or deception trespass in an occupied structure when another person, other than an accomplice of the offender (was) present, with purpose to commit in the structure any criminal offense.”
Galloway did not take issue with the fact that he committed a theft inside the home, but he did claim that the state failed to prove that he trespassed since he had entered the home by mistake.
“There are several grounds to support the trial court’s conclusion, as the finder of fact, that a trespass did occur,” wrote Judge Diane Grendell on behalf of the three-judge appellate panel. “While Galloway asserts that he believed he had permission to enter the home because his cousin had previously allowed him to stay there, the evidence shows that such a belief was questionable.”
The appellate panel noted that Galloway had not spoken to his cousin or been to her house in eight months, nor had he obtained permission to stay at her house that night.
“Under Galloway’s asserted defense, any person would be permitted to enter a stranger’s home merely because they knew someone who had previously lived there,” wrote Grendell. “Based on this evidence, it does not appear Galloway was privileged to enter the home on the night of the burglary.”
The court of appeals found that, even if there was some merit to Galloway’s claims, he provided no evidence, such as his cousin’s testimony, to corroborate his story.
Additionally, it noted that there were inconsistencies to Galloway’s version of events.
As a result, the jury was free to conclude that he was guilty of burglary and the appellate panel affirmed his conviction.
The judgment of the Lake County court was affirmed with Presiding Judge Timothy Cannon and Judge Thomas Wright concurring.
The case is cited State v. Galloway, 2014-Ohio-1154.