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Description: Cincinnati, Ohio criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with felony possession of a firearm.


{¶2} The relevant facts come from a hearing held by the trial court on Wright's motion to suppress. Sharonville Police Officer Zachary Jones testified, and the parties submitted footage from Jones's body camera.

{¶3} Jones testified that he was called to the Baymont Inn in Hamilton County, Ohio, twice on the night of January 21, 2021. Jones first responded at 1:17 a.m. to a complaint about noise and a fight on the fourth floor. The first body camera clip showed that Jones and three other officers went up to the fourth floor, where they heard loud noises coming from room 408. Jones knocked on the door and eventually a man answered. The room was noisy and full of people. Jones asked the man who had rented the room. The man said he would get the person and come right back.

{¶4} When the door reopened, many of the individuals, including Wright and Olivia Harris, the woman he was later stopped with, left the room and walked down the hall. Wright spoke to Jones, apparently attempting to put him at ease by telling him that they respected him and the other officers and were leaving. Jones clarified to the men who remained in the hotel room that he had not ordered everyone to leave and that he was simply investigating a complaint about noise and a fight. At that point, many of the people, including Wright and Harris, returned to the room. On his way

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back into the room, Wright spoke with Jones again, this time joking with Jones. The officers reminded the occupants to keep the noise down and they left the hotel.

{¶5} Later, at approximately 3:40 a.m., Jones, accompanied by Sharonville Police Officer Siefring, responded to another call at the Baymont Inn about a fight in progress on the fourth floor. Jones did not know who the complainant was, and the complainant did not describe the perpetrators.

{¶6} Jones testified that as he and Siefring were standing in the hotel lobby outside the elevator, he could hear "profanity and shouting; a disturbance coming from inside the elevator as it came down to the first floor." He testified that he heard a "higher pitched" voice in the elevator, but could not discern what was being said. He also heard "banging" coming from the elevator. He testified, "It sounded like an altercation in the elevator."

{¶7} The elevator doors opened and Wright and Harris were inside. Jones testified that they were standing very close together, and that Harris was "almost backed into a corner" of the elevator. He testified that Harris's hair weave had been mostly ripped off, she had an eyelash missing, and she was out of breath and appeared disheveled. Jones testified that although he was unsure, he believed he recognized Wright as one of the occupants of room 408 with whom he had interacted earlier. Jones was concerned that a physical altercation had occurred in the elevator, so he stopped Wright and Harris and told them they could not leave until they "sorted it out."

{¶8} The second body camera clip captured the events that led to Wright's arrest. As Jones and Siefring entered the hotel lobby, yelling can be heard on the video. Jones and Siefring looked for the stairwell to no avail and returned to the lobby. More

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yelling can be heard as the elevator descended to the first floor. As the elevator doors opened, Harris said, "I'm so mad." Harris was standing in the back of the elevator and Wright was standing close to her and between her and the elevator doors. Wright and Harris walked out of the elevator and into the lobby, and Jones immediately blocked Wright and Harris from leaving the lobby. He told them, "Hold tight, hold tight, don't leave, you're not leaving." Wright and Harris both said they were trying to leave. Jones said, "I know, but we can hear screaming, pounding." Harris said, "We're not, that's them [pointing upstairs]. We didn't do it, we're here together, we're not even here with them." Harris's hair was clearly disheveled.

{¶9} Wright said, "We ain't got nothing to do with it." Jones said, "No, you're gonna wait, we're gonna figure it out. We'll probably just get you out of the hotel." Siefring asked Wright, "Are they still fighting up on the fourth floor?" Wright responded, "Yeah, they up there fighting," and started to walk away. Jones told Wright, "You're not leaving yet man." Siefring reached for Wright's arm, and Wright ran down the hallway. Siefring caught up with him outside the exit doors and tackled him to the ground. Jones followed and aided Siefring in detaining Wright. Jones's body camera was knocked off his body and became obscured during the struggle, but the camera recorded audio of Siefring telling Wright, "Quit reaching, quit reaching." Siefring said, "He's got a gun." Jones yelled, "Gun, gun, gun." Jones testified that the handgun had been "kicked" out of Wright's hands during the struggle. Wright denied owning the handgun.

{¶10} Wright filed a motion to suppress the handgun and statements he made to officers after he was arrested. The trial court denied the motion to suppress. Wright

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was indicted for carrying a concealed weapon and having a weapon while under a disability. He pled no contest as charged, was sentenced, and filed the instant appeal.
State v. Wright, 2022 Ohio 2161 (Ohio App. 2022)

Outcome: Affirmed

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