Youngstown Daily Legal News

Woman who tried to cover up shooting of her daughter loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: December 5, 2014

A woman who tried to cover up the shooting of her 6-year-old daughter had her convictions affirmed recently when a panel of three judges in the 1st District Court of Appeals considered her claims that the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas improperly convicted her of tampering with evidence.

According to the facts and procedural history of the case outlined in the appellate court’s opinion, the defendant, Tangie Jackson, was in a room with her boyfriend, Ricky Singleton, when the two heard a gunshot in the bedroom.

They discovered that Jackson’s 7-year-old daughter had been shot in the back by Jackson’s 6-year-old son.

Instead of calling 911, Jackson and Singleton discussed their next steps, according to case summary.

Singleton reportedly suggested that he go outside the home and shoot through a window in order to make it appear as if a drive-by shooting had occurred.

After some deliberation, the couple decided that they would take all the children in a walk to the store and then call the police with a story that the girl had been hit by a bullet while walking.

Jackson cleaned the entrance wound on her daughter’s back and then everyone proceeded to walk nearly a mile away before Singleton called 911.

Although Singleton and Jackson coached the children to lie to the police, the kids’ stories were inconsistent. After some questioning, Jackson eventually admitted what happened.

The police obtained a search warrant for Jackson’s home where they found gunshot residue on a mattress and uncovered a handgun partially hidden in a filled cardboard box in a bedroom closet.

A jury subsequently convicted Jackson of misdemeanor child endangering, tampering with evidence accompanied by a firearm specification and obstructing official business. She was sentenced to a total of one year and nine months in prison.

On appeal, Jackson challenged her tampering with evidence conviction, arguing that the trial court erred by accepting as evidence her taped statements to police.

“Because Jackson has failed to object to the admission of her statements at trial, however, she has waived all but plain error,” wrote Judge Patrick Fischer for the court of appeals.

Judge Fischer wrote that, as a general matter, before a defendant’s confession can be admitted, some evidence must exist apart from the confession to demonstrate the “corpus delecti” of a crime, or the body of a crime.

“To satisfy the corpus-delecti rule, the state need only present circumstantial evidence tending to prove the fact that a crime was committed,” wrote Judge Fischer.

In Jackson’s case, the appellate panel held that the state presented evidence that Jackson and Singleton represented to police that her daughter had been shot in a drive-by shooting.

“The evidence tends to prove that the crime of tampering with evidence was committed, such that the trial court did not violate the corpus-delecti rule in admitting Jackson’s statements,” wrote Judge Fischer.

Jackson also challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting her conviction for tampering with evidence but the appellate panel found little merit to her argument.

“The evidence showed that Jackson and Singleton instituted a cover-up in an attempt to mislead police after Jackson’s daughter has been shot,” wrote Judge Fischer.

Because the gun was concealed and in light of Jackson’s and her children’s’ inconsistent stories, the appellate panel concluded that Jackson was properly convicted.

The judgment of the Hamilton County court was affirmed with Presiding Judge Penelope Cunningham and Judge Patrick DeWine concurring.

The case is cited State v. Jackson, 2014-Ohio-5008.

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