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Man who stalked bus driver loses appeal
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 4, 2014
The 8th District Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas did not err when it denied a defendant’s motion for acquittal and convicted him of menacing by stalking.
In February 2013 a three-count indictment was filed against Derrick Wright charging him with having a weapon under disability, carrying a concealed weapon and menacing by stalking.
A jury found him guilty of only the menacing charge and he was sentenced to an 18-month prison term.
Trial testimony established that the victim, Lashawn Pate, was a bus driver for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority in August 2012 when she was assigned to the Health Line, which travels through downtown Cleveland.
Pate testified that Wright began riding her bus and often complimented Pate on her hair and fragrance.
When Wright asked Pate to give him a call, she responded that she was not interested.
Following that incident, Wright began taking the bus every day.
In November 2012, he boarded the bus ranting aggressively, speaking in profanities and claiming that someone was out to kill him.
Wright’s statements later turned religious and he began telling Pate that he was the Messiah.
He told Pate that she was the eastern star and the devil and that she should “repent at Jesus’ knee.”
At one point, Wright pressed his body against Pate and stated, “Well since you believe in God, let me ask you, what would you do if I shot you in your head?”
Pate responded that she would not die because she “is a child of God.”
Wright told her that if she would have answered that she would die, “you would have died today.”
During the conversation, Wright unzipped his jacket and revealed that he was carrying a gun.
He then grabbed Pate’s right arm and told her that she was coming with him.
Pate refused while Wright made incessant demands that she leave the bus and informed her that he had been “watching her.”
Ultimately, Wright left the bus but before exiting turned to Pate and said, “I’m going to get you. You mine.”
Terrified, Pate made an incident report and switched bus routes.
In January 2013, Wright saw Pate on her new route and stated, “There’s my baby. I’ve been looking for you. I haven’t seen you, I’ve been riding all these buses looking for you and I finally found you.”
Pate filed another incident report and, from then on, a member of Transit Police began to ride with Pate on her route.
Det. Narayan Stitt stated that one day he questioned Wright about his relationship with Pate.
Wright claimed that he knew Pate and that she was his friend.
When asked whether he ever did anything to make Pate uncomfortable, Wright responded, “No. Never told that b---- I would kill her.”
After he was sentenced to prison, Wright appealed, arguing that his motion for acquittal should not have been overruled because his conviction was against the sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence.
“We find the state presented sufficient evidence that, on at least three occasions, (Wright) knowingly engaged in conduct that caused Pate to believe he would cause her physical harm and did cause her mental distress,” wrote Presiding Judge Frank Celebrezze on behalf of the court of appeals.
Wright claimed that his interactions with Pate amounted to nothing more than “aggressive flirtations” but the appellate panel noted that his position “ignores how a reasonable person would react to such comments.”
The court of appeals concluded by affirming the judgment of the Cuyahoga County court with Judge Kathleen Keough concurring to form the majority.
Judge Eileen A. Gallagher dissented, stating that there was not enough of a pattern of behavior to support a conviction for menacing by stalking.
The case is cited State v. Wright, 2014-Ohio-1073.
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