Youngstown Daily Legal News

Perjury conviction reversed for man who aided friend's assault

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: January 20, 2016

A judgment out of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas convicting Robert Stack of felonious assault and perjury was recently affirmed in part and reversed in part by a panel of three judges in an appellate court.

The 11th District Court of Appeals ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support Stack’s perjury conviction and reversed a jury’s guilty finding on that charge.

However, it also found that the assault conviction was supported by the manifest weight of the evidence.

Stack was charged via secret indictment after his friend, Robert Campbell, was charged with felonious assault for an attack on Russell Stephens.

According to case summary, Stack aided in the attack by preventing Stephens’ escape while Campbell beat him and allegedly throwing a few punches himself.

The perjury charges stemmed from a breaker bar that was found in Stack’s truck. Stephens testified that Campbell used the bar to hit him over the head but Stack denied ever seeing Campbell use the bar, which was later found to have Stephens’ DNA on one end.

In its review of the case, the court of appeals found that Stack was accused of perjury for testifying under oath that he did not see Campbell with a breaker bar.

“Mr. Stack never stated that Mr. Campbell did not strike Mr. Stephens with a breaker bar, he simply stated that he did not see this occur,” Judge Colleen Mary O’Toole wrote on behalf of the appellate panel. “The state contends that Mr. Stack perjured himself because a jury could reasonably infer from the circumstances surrounding the altercation that he must have seen Mr. Campbell using the breaker bar against Mr. Stephens.”

According to the appellate panel, the state’s evidence established “nothing more than the proposition” that Stack “could have seen Mr. Campbell strike Mr. Stephens with the breaker bar.”

“The state presented absolutely no evidence to establish that Mr. Stack’s testimony at the preliminary hearing regarding the breaker bar was knowingly false,” O’Toole wrote. “For these reasons, his conviction for perjury is based on insufficient evidence and must be reversed.”

But with regard to Stack’s felonious assault conviction, the reviewing court found that it was supported by the manifest weight of the evidence due to the evidence that Stack “corralled” Stephens, making it impossible for him to escape from Campbell during the confrontation.

“Mr. Stephens testified that Mr. Stack punched him; the breaker bar used to strike Mr. Stephens was found in Mr. Stack’s truck,” O’Toole wrote. “A jury could reasonably infer that Mr. Stack aided and abetted Mr. Campbell’s felonious assault from this evidence.”

The panel of judges went on to note that a conviction supported by the manifest weight of the evidence is necessarily premised on sufficient evidence, as was the case with Stack’s felonious assault conviction.

“The judgment of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas is affirmed in part, reversed in part and this matter is remanded for further proceedings with this opinion,” O’Toole concluded.

Presiding Judge Timothy Cannon and Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice joined O’Toole to form the majority.

Court documents state that Stack was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of community control along with an order of restitution. It is unclear how the remand will affect his sentence.

The case is cited State v. Stack, 2015-Ohio-5521.

[Back]