Youngstown Daily Legal News

Appellate court rejects appeal from woman who robbed gas station

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 8, 2016

A Dayton woman who robbed a gas station recently had her conviction affirmed by a panel of judges in the 2nd District Court of Appeals.

Gwendolyn Campbell appealed from the judgment of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas where she was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found her guilty on one count of second-degree felony robbery.

The robbery occurred at a Shell gas station in Dayton. Store manager Swaran Sidhu testified that he observed Campbell place items in her purse and he suspected her of shoplifting.

When Sidhu confronted her, an argument ensued during which Campbell told Sidhu that she was not going to pay him.

Store surveillance video showed Sidhu grab a beer out of Campbell’s purse. In response, Campbell pulled out a box cutter and threatened to kill Sidhu. Campbell then grabbed one other item and left the store.

Police quickly located Campbell in an alley near the gas station and arrested her. They found a box cutter on the ground and Campbell admitted that it was the one she used to threaten Sidhu.

Also in close proximity to Campbell was an empty margarita bottle and a beer can with a straw in it that had Campbell’s lipstick on it.

Several candy bars found in Campbell’s purse were identified as items that she had stolen from the Shell.

On appeal to the 2nd District court, Campbell argued that her robbery conviction was against the sufficiency and the manifest weight of the evidence. The court of appeals disagreed.

“To prove that Campbell committed the offense of robbery as charged under R.C. 2911.02(A)(2), the state was required to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Campbell committed a theft offense and that in committing the theft offense she inflicted, attempted to inflict, or threatened to inflict physical harm to another,” Judge mike Fain wrote in the opinion he authored on behalf of the court of appeals. “The mens rea element of this robbery offense is satisfied if the state proves the culpable mental state of the theft offense.”

Campbell argued that the state failed to prove the required elements of the offense because she did not intend to take items from the store but was only trying to protect herself from the aggression of the store owner.

According to her, she was justified in leaving without paying for the items she took because Sidhu was blocking her path to the register.

“Our review of the evidence, including our viewing of the surveillance video, leads us to conclude that sufficient evidence was presented to allow a jury to find, beyond reasonable doubt, that Campbell purposely committed a theft offense by taking items from the store and leaving the store with the knowledge that she did not have consent of the owner or a justifiable excuse for leaving the store without making payments for the items,” Fain wrote.

The appellate panel also pointed to the testimony of the arresting officers who said that Campbell admitted to threatening Sidhu during the theft offense.

The reviewing court also held that the manifest weight of the evidence supported Campbell’s conviction because the jury did not lose its way in returning a guilty verdict or create a manifest miscarriage of justice since it was free to believe the testimony of any witnesses and view the surveillance video.

“We conclude that a manifest miscarriage of justice has not occurred, and that Campbell's conviction for robbery is not against the manifest weight of the evidence,” Fain wrote. “Campbell’s assignment of error is overruled.”

The judgment of the Montgomery County court was affirmed with Judges Jeffrey Froelich and Michael Hall concurring.

The case is cited State v. Campbell, 2016-Ohio-598.

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