Youngstown Daily Legal News

Drug convictions vacated after court rules man was tried in wrong venue

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 19, 2014

A 12th District Court of Appeals panel recently vacated a man’s drug-related convictions after finding the state failed to prove that it used the proper venue for his trial.

Allen Honeycutt was indicted in Warren County for various offenses related to the growth, possession and trafficking of marijuana.

His charges came several months after the Warren County Drug Task Force started investigating a minor whom they believed was selling marijuana to other juveniles in the area.

The officers apprehended the minor, T.P., in January 2012 after he made numerous marijuana sales to an undercover officer.

T.P. agreed to assist the task force by arranging a buy from his supplier.

He told the supplier, Michael Lopez, to meet him at a Warren County Walmart.

When Lopez arrived to make the sale he was apprehended by task force members and also agreed to help them by arranging a purchase from his supplier.

That led to the task force apprehending Cody and Stacy Lampe in their Hamilton County home.

The Lampes agreed to help the task force with Cody Lampe wearing a recording device while discussing the cultivation of marijuana with Justin Baker.

The Lampes indicated that they grew their own marijuana and usually had enough to supply Lopez but occasionally supplemented their supply by buying from Baker.

The officers were able to observe Baker enter a warehouse on Creek Road in Hamilton County.

They obtained a warrant to search the warehouse and found 38,000 grams of marijuana as well as several tools used in the cultivation of the plant.

While they were executing the search warrant, the officers encountered Honeycutt inside the locked gate to the warehouse.

Honeycutt’s truck was parked nearby and the officers found a small amount of marijuana, a drug ledger detailing drug harvests and utilities for the warehouse inside.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with cultivation of marijuana as well as several other related charges.

A jury trial was held in Warren County where Honeycutt was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.

On direct appeal, He challenged his convictions and argued that the state failed to prove the Warren County venue was proper.

Upon review, the three-judge appellate panel found that the minor involved had no relationship with Honeycutt, nor did Lopez or the Lampes.

It determined that only the juvenile and Lopez were doing any business in Warren County and that the state was unable to show that Honeycutt had any knowledge of their sales of his product.

Further, the Lampes had testified that they typically supplied Lopez with marijuana that they grew themselves.

“In short, the record is devoid of evidence demonstrating that the parties acted jointly for the same enterprise with a common purpose attendant to that enterprise,” Presiding Judge Robert Hendrickson wrote for the court.

“Even assuming that the marijuana Baker sold to the Lampes was grown in the Creed Road warehouse rather than at one of Baker’s other grow locations, where there is no evidence tying Honeycutt to the operation, the evidence demonstrated that Baker only sold the marijuana in Butler or Hamilton counties. Neither Baker nor Honeycutt ever accepted drug shipments or sold their product in Warren County.”

Ruling that the state failed to prove that Honeycutt was engaged in criminal activity in Warren County, the judges ruled that he was tried in an improper venue and ordered that an acquittal be entered upon the record.

“Honeycutt’s convictions are reversed and vacated, and double jeopardy attaches to bar the state from reprosecuting these charges,” Judge Hendrickson stated.

Judges Stephen Powell and Michael Powell concurred.

The case is cited State v. Honeycutt, 2014-Ohio-352.

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