Youngstown Daily Legal News

Theft convictions stand for woman who used former employer's gas card

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: January 14, 2014

The 10th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed a woman’s theft convictions after she allegedly used a former employer’s gas card to purchase $2,700 in fuel.

The three-judge appellate panel found that Teila Schuttinger was properly convicted of theft but remanded the case to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas to merge her conviction for receiving stolen property.

Schuttinger was indicted on two counts of theft and one count of receiving stolen property based on her alleged misuse of her former employer’s gas card.

Case summary states that she worked for Spal-Tech, a company specializing in caulking, for about two years.

Spal-Tech owner Walter Everett testified that he hired Schuttinger as an office manager in 2007.

The following year, she helped him open a commercial account with Speedway so that his employees could use gas cards to purchase gasoline for their company trucks.

He said Schuttinger was not authorized to use the cards, but was in charge of the account.

In December 2009, Schuttinger’s employment ended and Everett began paying each month’s bill from Speedway.

In late 2010, he took a more hands-on approach and started carefully reviewing the bills.

He found that his employees were only using two of the cards but there were charges to a third card that no one admitted to using.

Everett stated that the charges began in December 2009 and continued sporadically until he closed the account in 2010.

The charges amounted to more than $2,700 and Everett determined that many of them took place when his employees were not working, such as late at night or Sundays. He then notified his local police department of the charges.

Richard Grubb, a supervisor of security systems for Speedway, got involved in the investigation and found still photos from the stores and times when the card was used.

Each photo showed a blue minivan and one picture showed Schuttinger inside the store.

Grubb further found that a Speedway rewards card was used with a few of the transactions and that the same rewards card had been used with Schuttinger’s credit card.

Two witnesses testified that Schuttinger drove a minivan and she admitted to owning a blue minivan but denied that it was the one in the photos.

The jury found her guilty of all charges and she was sentenced accordingly.

On appeal to the 10th District, Schuttinger argued that the trial court improperly refused to admit a photo of her minivan.

She argued that the photo would show the differences in her van and the one pictured, including different air vents, fog lights and wheels.

Upon review, the appellate panel found Schuttinger had failed to provide the state with the picture during discovery.

“Pursuant to Crim.R. 16(L)(1), when a party fails to provide discovery, the trial court may order the party to permit the discovery or inspection, grant a continuance, prohibit the party from introducing into evidence the material not disclosed, or make any other order it deems just under the circumstances,” Presiding Judge William Klatt wrote for the court.

The judges found that Schuttinger testified about the differences in the van and concluded that the trial court properly excluded the photos.

She next argued that her convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence.

“Appellant argues that the evidence she submitted was ‘clearly superior’ to the evidence the state presented,” Klatt continued.

The judges, however, disagreed. They found that the jury was able to view the pictures of the minivan and weigh Schuttinger’s claims that her’s differed.

“In doing so, the jury apparently chose to disbelieve appellant. This was within the province of the jury, and we cannot say the jury lost its way in doing so,” Judge Klatt stated.

The judges did rule that her convictions for theft and receiving stolen property should have merged for sentencing and remanded the case for resentencing.

Judge Gary Tyack and retired Judge Thomas Bryant concurred.

The case is cited State v. Schuttinger, 2013-Ohio-5793.

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