Wednesday, June 23, 1999
Convict can't be reindicted after assault victim dies
Judge: New charges violate plea deal
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — A Butler County judge ruled Tuesday that a grand jury couldn't reindict a man on more serious charges following the death of his victim four years after the crime.
In 1994, Carl N. Lampley II pleaded guilty to felonious assault after firing the shot that left Derek Sneed paralyzed below the waist.
Four years later, as Mr. Lampley was serving a prison term on the charge, Mr. Sneed died from an infection stemming from his paraplegic condition.
A grand jury indicted Mr. Lampley for involuntary manslaughter, but Butler County Common Pleas Judge Matthew Crehan dismissed the indictment Tuesday, ruling it violated his 5-year-old plea bargain agreement.
In the agreement, the prosecution did not reserve the right to indict Mr. Lampley again if Mr. Sneed died from injuries sustained during the shooting, Judge Crehan said.
“The law is very clear,” he said. “The state is precluded by the plea agreement from coming back and reindicting Mr. Lampley.”
Judge Crehan said he based his decision on a 1993 Ohio Supreme Court ruling in favor of a Franklin County man who pleaded guilty to attempted felonious assault for stabbing another man and later was indicted for murder when the man died.
Mr. Lampley has served five years of a 7-to-15-year prison sentence and will be eligible for parole in about four months.
After the judge announced his decision, Mr. Lampley hugged his mother, Marla Lampley of Hamilton.
“I'm very happy,” Mrs. Lampley said. “I feel like justice has been served.”
Mr. Sneed's parents could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Lampley's attorneys, Jack Garretson and Andy Nastoff, said this case could have a profound impact on plea-bargain agreements in Butler County.
The prosecution will fight to include the right to indict a defendant on more serious charges if the victim dies later, Mr. Garretson said. “It will be a hotly contested issue in plea agreement negotiations,” he said.
But assistant prosecutor John M. Holcomb said that cases like Mr. Lampley's are rare and will have little impact on plea bargaining.
Mr. Lampley shot Mr. Sneed on March 9, 1994, at Front Street and Peshing Avenue in Hamilton's Second Ward.
Mr. Lampley contended that the gun accidentally discharged as he struggled with another man.
The prosecution said he intentionally fired the gun, but missed the intended victim and accidentally shot Mr. Sneed, a bystander.
During Tuesday's hearing, Mr. Holcomb told Judge Crehan that the reindictment was justified because prosecutors had no reason in 1994 to suspect that Mr. Sneed would die from a cause linked to the shooting. “No one was more surprised than me when he died,” he said.
But Mr. Garretson said that prosecutors should have known that paraplegics are susceptible to life-threatening diseases and infections.
“They had numerous experts available to tell them that death was probable from this condition,” he said.
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