Facts
- Ricardo Woods and a co-defendant planned to rob the manager of a convenience store by confronting him when he exited with the day’s receipts.
- They surveilled the store, parked nearby, and waited while both were armed.
- The co-defendant climbed onto the store roof while Woods remained as a lookout.
- After a nearby fire engine siren, the co-defendant came down from the roof, and the pair walked away, leaving a vehicle behind.
- A police officer arrived responding to a report of someone on the roof and confronted them as they were walking away.
- Woods and his co-defendant shot the officer; the officer later died.
- Woods was convicted of aggravated murder predicated on purposely causing death while committing or attempting to commit, or while fleeing immediately after committing or attempting to commit, aggravated robbery, with knowledge the victim was a police officer.
Issues
- Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove an attempted aggravated robbery under Ohio’s attempt statute when the intended victim was never confronted and the robbery was not completed.
- Whether leaving the store area before confronting the manager constituted abandonment that negated the attempted aggravated robbery and required reducing aggravated murder to murder.
- Whether constitutional challenges to Ohio’s death-penalty scheme and excusal of certain venire members required reversal.
Decision
- The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed Woods’s aggravated-murder conviction.
- The court held the evidence supported a finding that Woods engaged in conduct constituting an attempt to commit aggravated robbery.
- The court rejected the claim that abandonment negated the attempt or reduced the homicide offense.
- The court overruled constitutional and jury-selection challenges based on controlling precedent.
Legal Principles
- Under R.C. 2923.02(A), an attempt requires (1) purpose or knowledge and (2) conduct directed toward commission of an offense that, if successful, would constitute or result in that offense.
- Attempt does not require the “last proximate act” before completion; conduct sufficiently directed toward the crime may satisfy the statute even if the offense is not consummated.
- Once an attempt is established by the actor’s conduct and mental state, subsequent withdrawal generally does not retroactively erase the attempt for purposes of aggravated-murder liability predicated on attempting (or fleeing after attempting) the underlying felony.
- Trial courts may excuse venire members whose views on capital punishment render them otherwise unsuitable to serve as jurors under applicable criminal rules and precedent.
Conclusion
The court concluded that armed surveillance and positioning to ambush the store manager constituted an attempted aggravated robbery, and that walking away before confrontation did not negate an already-formed attempt; accordingly, the aggravated-murder conviction for killing a police officer during flight from the attempted robbery was affirmed.