Youngstown Daily Legal News

Conviction affirmed for woman who tried to shoot husband in bed

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 28, 2014

Recently, the 5th District Court of Appeals affirmed an attempted murder conviction for a woman in Tuscarawas County after she admitted to trying to kill her husband in his sleep.

Following a jury trial, the court of common pleas sentenced Mary Brown to a total of six years in prison for one count of attempted murder with a firearm specification.

According to case summary, when Brown’s husband, Ralph, went to bed on the night of Aug. 17, 2012, his wife was already in bed.

Ralph told the court that the next thing he remembered was waking to a loud shot and finding himself covered in blood.

He turned to Mary and asked what happened but she stated that she did not know.

Ralph went to the kitchen to get an ice pack for his head and then went into the bathroom to look at his wound.

He told the court that he could tell that he had been shot.

After Ralph took a shower and examined his wound, he went into the bedroom and saw a hole in the headboard of the bed with a bullet in it.

He said, at the time, he thought the bullet must have come from outside the house.

Ralph went to the hospital where a doctor confirmed that he had a superficial bullet hole in his head.

Police were contacted and Det. Orvis Campbell came to the hospital to investigate.

After establishing that Ralph had not attempted suicide, the police conducted a search of the house where it was determined that the bullet did not enter from the outside.

“Mr. Brown stated that it was at this time that he first realized what had happened, that (Mary) had shot him,” wrote Judge John Wise in his opinion written on behalf of the three-judge appellate panel.

Upon questioning, Mary confessed “I shot him,” and turned over the gun she had used to the police.

The gun, a revolver, was inside a sock, inside a bag hidden in the closet.

Campbell testified that, during his interviews with Mary, she stated that she was in bed with her husband when she shot him.

He said she began “rambling” about being frustrated about the fact that Ralph withheld money from her.

During another interview with Campbell, which was recorded and played at trial, Mary stated, “I love him still no matter what. I love him. I just flipped out.”

She also said that the night of the shooting was the 30-year anniversary of when she had attempted suicide.

Mary was also an amputee; she had one arm amputated due to cancer and a leg due to a MRSA infection.

In another interview with a different detective, Mary explained, “I was laying in my bed. I was scared, I was so afraid that I forgot to pull the gun out of the sock when I pulled the trigger.”

She claimed that she pointed the gun and closed her eyes and that her hand was shaking violently when she pulled the trigger.

In her interview with Campbell, however, Mary said that she had decided not to go through with it and that she got out of bed to put the gun away but her finger slipped on the trigger.

The Browns’ neighbor testified that Mary often talked about money issues, she was often angry and was considering getting a divorce.

Despite her initial confession, in her appeal Mary argued that her conviction was not supported by sufficient evidence.

“Appellant’s specific challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence appears to be that she was emotionally unwell at the time of the shooting and that because of her unclear mind on that night, the state failed to prove that she had a specific intention to shoot her husband,” wrote Judge Wise.

However, the appellate panel noted that Ohio law does not recognize the defense of “diminished capacity.”

“Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, we conclude that a reasonable person could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant had committed the crime of attempted murder by purposely shooting Ralph Brown in the head,” Judge Wise concluded.

The judgment of the Tuscarawas County court was unanimously affirmed. The case was remanded only for the court to properly impose court costs.

Presiding Judge Scott Gwin and Judge Craig Baldwin concurred.

The case is cited State v. Brown, 2014-Ohio-888.

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