Youngstown Daily Legal News

Court of appeals upholds conviction of man who stabbed, raped his ex-wife

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 15, 2014

After a review for sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence, the 10th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed myriad convictions for a man who brutally beat his ex-wife.

Robert Timmons appealed from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas ruling finding him guilty of felonious assault, domestic violence, attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, tampering with evidence, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary based on an attack on his former spouse.

Specifically, Timmons argued there was improper evidence supporting his convictions for rape and aggravated burglary.

The facts of the case state that Timmons and the victim, J.T., were married in 2007 and divorced shortly thereafter.

During the marriage, Timmons was arrested on domestic violence charges, leading to a divorce and J.T.’s decision to obtain a civil protection order against him.

J.T. said she cut off all contact with Timmons, ignored his phone calls and moved three times without telling him her address in an effort to avoid him.

Still, in 2010 she began receiving Timmons’ mail at her new apartment.

She told the court she was afraid because she had not given Timmons her new address but that she did not call the police because she was afraid of him.

She also eventually started answering Timmons’ calls because she said she “was afraid that the violence would escalate, because when he is ignored, he becomes violent,” according to case summary.

J.T. attempted to leave her apartment but found she could not get out of her lease.

In September 2011, she was in her apartment when someone knocked on the door.

Believing it was maintenance, she answered and saw Timmons.

When she tried to close the door she said Timmons forced his way through and asked for a glass of water.

She retrieved it for him while he broke both of her cellphones.

When she handed him the glass, she said he smashed it in her face, causing her to bleed profusely.

At that point, J.T. went to her kitchen and Timmons followed. She then blacked out.

When she regained consciousness, she said she was wet and realized she had defecated on herself.

That was when she said Timmons physically forced her upstairs and onto the bed. He then raped her until J.T. pleaded to use the bathroom.

She told the court Timmons let her use the bathroom but came in and stabbed her in the neck while she was on the toilet.

He then left and returned to stab her in the chin and tie her legs together.

After binding her, Timmons walked downstairs and J.T. heard the door.

She said she did not want her son to come home and find her in that condition so she tried to climb out the second-story window to the ground using her bathroom curtains.

She blacked out as she grabbed the curtains and woke up in the hospital with a tracheotomy to help her breath, a feeding tube and a catheter.

She remained hospitalized for 30 days and spent time in a medically induced coma to treat her extensive injuries.

Elijah Lykins also testified for the state and said he was driving Timmons around on the day of the attack.

He said he took Timmons to J.T.’s house and waited outside for almost an hour.

When Timmons returned to the car he was covered in blood and told Lykins that he “just killed his ex-wife.”

Under threat, Lykins then helped Timmons clean up at a hotel, get new clothes and dispose of stolen items including a suit, a camera and a GPS.

On direct examination, Timmons told the court he and J.T. stayed in touch after the divorce and he went to her house on the day of the alleged attack to drop off money for her electric bill.

He said J.T. tried to have sex with him but he declined because he suffers from erectile dysfunction. He said he saw J.T.’s injuries but did not cause them.

On cross-examination, however, he admitted that J.T. had a protection order against him. Still, he maintained that they did not have sex and he did not cause injuries to J.T.

Instead, he said J.T. stabbed herself because she wanted to collect money from the Victims of Crime fund.

He said she threw the glass of water at him and it bounced off of his hand and hit her in the face. He further contended that J.T. slit her own throat and defecated on herself in the process.

He insisted that the only harm he caused her was a bruise he inflicted when he tried to stop her from hurting herself.

He also said she told him to take the suit, camera and GPS “when she was sitting on the toilet, dying.”

He failed to explain why he did not call 911 after leaving the house.

The jury rejected that testimony and found Timmons guilty of the various charges.

The trial court sentenced him to a total of 47 years in prison and he appealed to the 10th District.

“In his first assignment of error, appellant argues his convictions for rape and aggravated burglary were not supported by sufficient evidence and were against the manifest weight of the evidence,” Judge Betsy Luper Schuster wrote for the court.

Upon review, the three-judge appellate panel found that to support a rape conviction, the state had to show Timmons used force to compel J.T. to submit to engage in sexual conduct.

To uphold this requirement, it presented J.T.’s testimony that Timmons physically forced her on the bed and forced his penis into her vagina. They ruled that such testimony was sufficient to uphold his conviction.

Similarly, they held that aggravated burglary takes place when an individual forces his or her way into a home, uninvited, with the intent to commit a crime.

They ruled J.T.’s testimony that Timmons forced his way through her door and immediately broke her cellphones and smashed a water glass in her face was sufficient to establish those elements.

“Because we conclude there was sufficient evidence to sustain both appellant’s rape and aggravated burglary convictions, we must next determine whether those convictions are nonetheless against the manifest weight of the evidence,” Judge Luper Schuster stated.

Timmons asserted that his testimony regarding the rape was more credible because a rape kit failed to show the presence of semen.

The judges disagreed, noting that the hospital had to delay the rape kit until after a catheter was inserted and any semen may have been discarded during J.T.’s initial treatment.

They further held that J.T.’s testimony had more weight because it was consistent during her interviews with police and throughout the entirety of the trial.

“The only evidence to the contrary was appellant’s own self-serving testimony which was markedly different from the version of events he told police and was riddled with inconsistencies throughout, and we agree with the jury’s decision to discount that testimony in favor of ample other evidence at trial,” Judge Luper Schuster wrote.

“In light of the evidence discussed above, as well as the record in its entirety, we do not find the jury clearly lost its way in concluding appellant committed the offenses of rape and aggravated burglary when he forced his way into J.T.’s home, smashed a glass in her face, forced her to lie down and forcibly penetrated her vagina with his penis, then stabbed her repeatedly, robbed her, and left her there to die.”

Judges William Klatt and John Connor concurred and the panel affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

The case is cited State v. Timmons, 2014-Ohio-3520.

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