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Thread: Anthony Belton - Ohio Death Row

  1. #21
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    Belton receives death penalty from 3-judge panel

    Anthony Belton, convicted this week in the robbery and shooting death of a BP store clerk, was sentenced Friday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to the death penalty.

    Judges Ruth Ann Franks, James Jensen, and Gene Zmuda announced the sentence after deliberating for more than seven hours over two days. The decision came after two days of testimony from defense witnesses regarding Belton’s background and character.

    Belton, 26, of Toledo, was found guilty Wednesday of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery as well as capital specifications and gun specifications in the 2008 killing of Matthew Dugan, 34, during a robbery at the former BP gas station at Dorr Street and Secor Road.

    He had pleaded no contest Monday to the charges. In a plea of no contest, a defendant does not admit guilt but does not challenge the facts in the indictment.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...dge-panel.html
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  2. #22
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    Belton case underscores dangers faced at carryouts

    Carryout clerks in Toledo said Saturday that the death sentence handed to Anthony Belton Friday by a three-judge panel is exactly what he deserved.

    "If you rob or shoot somebody and get out [of prison] after two or three years, you, what? Get the opportunity to do it again?" said Steven Ozbay, the owner of 7th Heaven Party Store, 1602 Cherry St.

    Working in a convenience store was the same job 34-year-old Matthew Dugan took on in 2008 to make extra cash to pay his bills during a layoff, when Belton walked into the former BP station at Secor Road and Dorr Street demanding cash and phone cards.

    Mr. Dugan complied, but when he turned from getting the phone cards, Belton shot him in the back of the head and fled.

    On Friday, the three judges sentenced Belton to death by lethal injection.

    Jennifer Robbins, an employee at Monroe Carryout, 2829 Monroe St., has been robbed twice in the seven years she's been in the carryout business. She agreed that Belton "got what he deserved."

    She said she's happy to see justice -- none of the suspects who robbed her was ever caught.

    Even those who have never been robbed at work -- the lucky few from the 16 employees The Blade spoke with such as T.J. Maddox, at Devyn's Market -- said the death sentence is appropriate.

    "He had no right to hurt innocent people. It wasn't right what he was doing, but he didn't have to kill him," said Mr. Maddox, who has worked at Devyn's, 1401 N. Detroit Ave., for a year.

    A man who has worked at Midtown Food Mart, 1130 Bancroft St., for 15 years, said Belton "had no regard for human life" and "he got what he deserved."

    The man asked to not be identified, fearing retribution.

    "You never know," he said of who might take offense to his comments. "It's like the devil came down and is living in people now."

    The man said he has never been robbed, but even so, "it doesn't put me at ease. But what can you do?"

    In the 11 years that Frank Angel has been in the carryout business, he's had a gun put to his head at least two or three times.

    "Nobody is safe," said Mr. Angel, a manager at Power Party Store at 328 Columbus St. in North Toledo.

    Mr. Angel -- like a lot of other carryout managers and owners around Toledo -- knows his customers by name. He knows what they drink, what they smoke. He jokes with his customers, smiles at everyone.

    That, he says, is crucial for staying safe in an otherwise dangerous line of work.

    Mahmoud Awada, a manager at Bush Quick Stop, 702 N. Bush St., watched the video of Mr. Dugan being shot that was part of the evidence the judges weighed in their decision, calling the footage "disturbing."

    Although he acknowledges the work is dangerous, it's what he knows. What he does.

    Three years ago, a man came into the store and asked for a carton of cigarettes. Mr. Awada said that when he asked to see the man's identification, the man pulled out a gun.

    "It's a very bad feeling," he said. "Any mistake from you and they're going to shoot. … We don't feel safe, but that's the job."

    The Blade spoke with dozens of carryout clerks, managers and owners Saturday about Belton, Mr. Dugan, and the often-times dangerous jobs they go to every day from all over Toledo -- a city represented largely by state Sen. Edna Brown, a Democrat who opposes the death penalty.

    Some clerks declined to be interviewed. Some just politely shook their heads; others said they haven't had serious run-ins in their jobs and didn't want to jinx it now.

    There were mixed feelings among those interviewed about whether working in a carryout poses inherent dangers.

    Everyone had video surveillance cameras, and all but one has a gun in the store at all times.

    The one without a gun? A baseball bat.

    "You've got to have a gun," said Ali Moubarak, who occasionally helps at his uncle's store, Gold Star Market at 2123 Lagrange St. "That's the reality of the situation."

    His uncle, Gus Moubarak, who has seen his customers grow from young children into adults, said they don't have any problems inside the store.

    He shoos away anyone who is loitering outside and keeps the line at the register moving.

    "We don't give them the opportunity to do anything," he said. "Nobody messes with me. I am very, very tough."

    Occasionally, someone will ask why there is no bullet-resistant glass installed in front of the counter, Ali Moubarak said.

    Both of the men agreed putting in glass would make interactions with customers less personal and more dramatic.

    "You're playing into the fear," Ali Moubarak said.

    But risk is still part of the job.

    Hassan Cheaib, whose wife owns Cheaib Carryout, 803 Bush St., was cleaning up Saturday from an overnight break-in at the store. Bags of chips were strewn across the floor.

    He's been robbed once at gunpoint -- all the suspect got was $47, he said, adding that he never keeps much cash in the store.

    He doesn't have a gun -- just the bat and some surveillance cameras -- he doesn't want to hurt anyone and, besides, he loves the neighborhood despite watching it decline in the past 11 or so years, he said.

    Other carryout owners such Ali Abdou, from Huron Market, 528 Magnolia St., said they don't fear for their safety.

    Mr. Abdou said the key is learning how to read people and understand that, in his line of work, you see and deal with people from all walks of life. He does have security cameras, and he does have a gun but said he'll never use it.

    Mr. Ozbay also keeps a gun in his store because of the crime -- especially gun-related crime -- in the surrounding area. His store, he pointed out, is directly across Bancroft Street from the gas station where 17-year-old Montrese Moore was killed and two others wounded outside the station last month.

    He owns two other stores -- a carryout and a gas station, both in South Toledo -- and has never been robbed, he said.

    "Thank God," he added.

    Mr. Maddox said he hopes other criminals will look at Belton's sentence and think before acting.

    "Hopefully other people, criminals, learn from his mistake and don't hurt people who comply and give them the money."

    http://www.toledoblade.com/local/201...carryouts.html
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  3. #23
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    2012-0902. State v. Belton

    Lucas App. No. CR0200802934 This cause is pending before the court as an appeal from the Common Pleas Court of Lucas County. Upon consideration of appellant's motion for a stay of execution of Anthony Belton set for August 1, 2012, it is ordered by the court that the motion is granted.
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  4. #24
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    On Tuesday January 26, 2016 at 9:00 am the Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral argument on direct appeal in Anthony Belton v. State of Ohio, Case no. 2012-0902 you may view the hearing live stream here

    Death Penalty

    Lucas County Common Pleas Court

    Anthony Belton of Toledo was charged in 2008 with the murder of a convenience store clerk at a gas station. After Belton waived his right to a jury trial and pled no contest, a three-judge panel found him guilty of murder and other charges and then sentenced him to death. Belton is appealing his death sentence and convictions.

    Clerk Killed in Early Morning Robbery

    On the morning of Aug. 13, 2008, a woman stopped at a Toledo BP service station to pick up a muffin and coffee. No one was attending the counter. As the woman left, she glanced back through a window and saw a man surrounded by blood on the floor behind the counter. She called 911.

    The clerk, Matthew Dugan, had died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head. According to the store owner, a number of prepaid phone cards and approximately $600 in cash also had been taken. Security video showed a man entering and exiting the store three times that morning, minutes apart. The third time, the man walked up to the counter with two bottled drinks and then pointed a gun at Dugan. Dugan gave cash to the man and handed over other items. The man subsequently made motions toward something behind Dugan. When the clerk turned around in that direction, the man shot him.

    Information led police to Belton, who was arrested along with two other men. Belton gave varying accounts to police about the events of that morning. With Belton’s help, police searched the yard of the house where he was living and found a 9 mm gun.

    Defendant Waives Jury Trial

    Belton was indicted in August 2008 on one count of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery, and each charge included the possibility of an additional punishment, called a specification, for using a firearm.

    Numerous motions were considered by the trial court during pretrial proceedings. In 2010, Belton waived his right to a trial by jury and opted to have his case heard before a three-judge panel. According to the state’s brief, Belton signed another waiver in March 2012 and again the next month. He then pled no contest to the charges. The panel convicted Belton of all the alleged crimes.

    Belton’s lawyer requested that a jury be required for the part of the trial that reviews mitigating circumstances, but the court denied the motion. On April 5, 2012, the panel determined the one aggravating factor outweighed the mitigating circumstances, and sentenced Belton to death.

    In the appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, Belton’s attorneys present 20 arguments challenging the convictions and death sentence.

    Belton’s Claims

    Among the assertions made in Belton’s brief to the Court:

    R.C. 2929.11, which was amended in 2011, states that felony sentencing is designed to protect the public from future crime and to punish the offender “using the minimum sanctions” and without overburdening state and local resources. Belton’s attorneys point to data showing that death-penalty cases cost much more than non-death-penalty cases, which immensely drains state and local resources, they argue. In addition, “given that a [life without parole] sentence protects the public from future crimes by the offender just as effectively as a sentence of death, the moral rationales underlying Ohio’s death penalty are no longer valid,” they write. A life without parole sentence is the minimum sanction needed to the meet the felony sentencing purposes described in state law, and because Belton’s trial attorney didn’t raise this argument, Belton was denied effective assistance of counsel, his appellate lawyers assert.

    Belton’s attorneys cite two U.S. Supreme Court rulings requiring that a jury decide every fact necessary to put a defendant to death. In their view, Belton was entitled to have a jury decide his punishment after the panel found him guilty. Even when a defendant accused of a capital offense pleads guilty or agrees to a trial with judges rather than a jury, Belton’s attorneys maintain that the defendant later has the right to have a jury consider and weigh the aggravating circumstances against any mitigating factors to determine whether a death sentence is appropriate.

    They also contest the use of lethal injection as the method of imposing death in the state, describing it as cruel and unusual punishment. They note there is no way to challenge the constitutionality of this method in state courts, based on the statute and a 2010 Ohio Supreme Court decision (Scott v. Houk) on this issue, and they assert the lack of a remedy alone makes lethal injection unconstitutional.

    They additionally argue that Belton’s rights were violated by the trial court’s denial of various motions during pretrial and the admission of certain evidence before the panel and that the state didn’t prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

    State’s Responses

    On behalf of the state, attorneys from the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office respond with several arguments:

    They contend that nothing in the bill that amended R.C. 2929.11 indicates the legislature intended to abolish Ohio’s death penalty. They explain that other statutes in that chapter permit sentences of either life imprisonment or death for certain crimes and describe the criteria for imposing death.

    Taken together, the laws can be interpreted to give effect to all of them because no conflict exists, they assert. In addition, capital punishment serves the felony sentencing purpose of punishing the offender and “legitimately serves the punitive interests of incapacitation, retribution, and deterrence of future capital crimes by other individuals,” they write in the brief to the Court. The fact that Belton’s attorney didn’t present the “minimum sanction” argument at trial doesn’t rise to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel and didn’t change the outcome of the trial, they maintain.

    They counter that the Ohio Supreme Court held in 2006 (State v. Ketterer) that a capital defendant who pleads guilty or no contest hasn’t been denied the constitutional right to have a jury decide the penalty for the crimes. They also argue that neither of the two U.S. Supreme Court cases cited by Belton’s attorneys require a jury to be empaneled to determine a defendant’s punishment when the defendant waives a jury trial. Examining mitigating factors in a capital case isn’t a fact-finding activity that needs a jury, but instead is a process of weighing the mitigating and aggravating circumstances to make a judgment whether death may be imposed, they maintain.

    On the lethal injection procedure, the state’s attorneys assert that the U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t held the method to be unconstitutional overall. While the Ohio Supreme Court ruled the legislature offered no legal method for challenging the use of lethal injection, the Court concluded steps are available in federal courts. The state’s attorneys contend that the lack of a way to challenge lethal injection in state courts doesn’t invalidate its use.

    They maintain that Belton’s motions denied by the trial court were meritless, that evidence was properly admitted before the panel, and that the state proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt as defined in state law.

    - Kathleen Maloney

    Docket entries, memoranda, briefs (including amicus briefs), and other information about this case may be accessed through the case docket.

    Contacts
    Representing Anthony Belton: Spiros Cocoves, 419.241.5506

    Representing the State of Ohio from the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office: Evy Jarrett, 419.340.5931
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  5. #25
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    Justices hear Toledoan’s appeal of death sentence

    BY JIM PROVANCE
    THE TOLEDO BLADE

    COLUMBUS — A Toledo man who killed a convenience store clerk during a 2008 robbery should have been allowed to have a jury consider his sentence rather than the three-judge panel he initially opted for, his attorney argued Tuesday before the Ohio Supreme Court.

    That three-judge panel sentenced Anthony Belton to death.

    Belton pleaded no contest to aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery for shooting Matthew Dugan, 34, a clerk in the back of the head during a holdup at the former BP gas station at Dorr Street and Secor Road, on Aug. 13, 2008. He waived his right to a jury, and a three-judge Lucas County Common Pleas Court panel convicted him.

    But then Belton asked that a jury weigh the factors that would determine whether he would be executed or serve life in prison without parole.

    The judicial bench rejected that motion and ruled that the fact that Belton committed the murder during the commission of a felony, a robbery, was sufficient to outweigh mitigating factors such as Belton’s troubled childhood.

    “Your client [waived his right to a jury] on three occasions,” Justice Terrence O’Donnell told Belton’s Toledo attorney, Spiros Cocoves. “Three times your client had signed a waiver of this very argument you’re making.”

    Mr. Cocoves responded, “It’s the nature of the death penalty.”

    Lucas County Assistant Prosecutor Evy Jarrett argued that there is no such thing as a hybrid process.

    “The strategy behind that, of course, is to attempt to get a favorable judicial panel for the guilt phase followed by perhaps a more favorable review by the jury on the penalty phase,” she said.

    Mr. Cocoves also urged the court to reweigh the mitigating and aggravating factors considered by the judicial panel when it opted for death over a life sentence. He pointed to Belton’s youth, growing up with an addict and prostitute mother before moving to California to live with his father.

    But he also urged the justices to consider another factor, the cost to the public of litigating death penalty cases.

    “I think we all know intrinsically that it’s expensive,” he said.

    Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said she didn’t see this as justification for a lesser sentence.

    “Wasn’t it always the case that it’s more expensive to litigate a death penalty case than it is to impose life without parole?” she asked. “Some would argue that that’s an appropriate use of state resources.”

    Ms. Jarrett argued that the three-judge panel properly weighed the sentencing factors.

    “There was actual video recording of the crime itself that showed the defendant leaned in to take the shot at the clerk that was cooperating with his demands,” she said. “The clerk clearly posed no threat to the defendant and yet was essentially executed.”

    The Supreme Court did not issue an immediate ruling.

    Belton, 30, is on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...gdd4LY1UgzW.99

  6. #26
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    State v Belton

    In today's Ohio Supreme Court opinions, the court affirmed Belton's death sentence on direct appeal.
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  7. #27
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    Ohio high court upholds death penalty for former Toledoan

    COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence for a former Toledo man who shot a convenience store clerk during a 2008 robbery.

    The high court rejected the argument that Anthony Belton, 30, should have been allowed to have a jury determine his sentence after he’d already pleaded no contest to aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery and had a three-judge panel consider his case.

    “In short, Ohio law does not permit a jury to sentence a capital defendant if the defendant has elected to enter a plea of guilty or no contest to capital charges,” wrote Justice Sharon Kennedy for the 6-1 majority.

    The court also disagreed with Belton’s argument that not allowing a jury to weigh the factors that determine whether a death sentence is appropriate in the case violated his Sixth Amendment rights.

    “…a defendant is not deprived of his right to present a defense simply because he does not present his evidence to a jury…,” Justice Kennedy wrote. “And Belton does not claim that he was prevented from presenting a full mitigation defense to the three-judge panel.”

    Belton was convicted of shooting Matthew Dugan, 34, in the back of the head during the holdup of the former BP gas station at Dorr Street and Secord Road on Aug. 13, 2008. The three-judge panel that considered his case determined that the fact that Belton committed the murder in the course of another felony, robbery, was sufficient to outweigh mitigating factors such as Belton’s troubled childhood.

    The Supreme Court's sole dissenting vote belonged to Justice William O’Neill, who has previously stated he believes Ohio’s death penalty is unconstitutional.

    Belton, on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, still has a path of federal appeals that he may pursue.

    Ohio has not executed an inmate since January, 2014 amid under court and gubernatorial moratoriums as the state has struggled to obtain the drugs it would prefer to use in lethal injections. The current moratorium will expire at the end of this year.

    http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/20...r-Toledan.html

  8. #28
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    Belton has an execution date of March 11, 2020.

    http://www.drc.ohio.gov/execution-schedule

  9. #29
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Belton's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Ohio
    Case Nos.: (2012-0902)
    Decision date: April 20, 2016
    Rehearing denied: November 9, 2016
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    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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