State v. Baker

[Cite as State v. Baker, 

.]




                               IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO
                                  SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
                                        CLARK COUNTY

 STATE OF OHIO                                         :
                                                       :
       Appellee                                        :   C.A. No. 2023-CA-28
                                                       :
 v.                                                    :   Trial Court Case No. 23-CR-0071
                                                       :
 DEAN BAKER                                            :   (Criminal Appeal from Common Pleas
                                                       :   Court)
       Appellant                                       :
                                                       :

                                                 ...........

                                                 OPINION

                                            Rendered on July 3, 2024

                                                 ...........

CHRIS BECK, Attorney for Appellant

R. KELLY ORMSBY, III & DEBORAH S. QUIGLEY, Attorneys for Appellee

                                                .............

EPLEY, J.

        {¶ 1} Dean Baker was convicted after a jury trial in the Clark County Court of

Common Pleas of murder with a firearm specification, tampering with evidence, and

abuse of a corpse. Baker appeals, claiming that his conviction for murder was based on

insufficient evidence and was against the manifest weight of the evidence because the
                                                                                       -2-


State failed to disprove his claim of self-defense. He further argues that the trial court

erred in revoking his bond the week before trial when no bond violation had occurred.

For the following reasons, the trial court’s judgment will be affirmed.

                              I. Facts and Procedural History

       {¶ 2} In August 2022, Baker lived with his wife and her children in a single-family

home in Greenville, Darke County. Corey Fleming was Baker’s best friend, and he was

staying in a detached garage behind the home. Baker also had a girlfriend, Ashlee

Fletcher, who lived nearby.

       {¶ 3} According to the State’s evidence, sometime between 9:15 p.m. on August

7, 2022, and 6:27 a.m. on August 8, 2022, Baker shot Fleming once in the mouth while

the two argued in Baker’s kitchen. The bullet traveled into Fleming’s brain, killing him.

Baker wrapped Fleming’s head and part of his body in plastic wrap and placed the body

in his Cadillac Escalade.

       {¶ 4} On August 8, 2022, Baker took Fleming’s body to his place of employment,

Cal-Maine, a large egg production facility. He left Fleming’s body in a gray barn on the

property. When Baker returned home that afternoon, he told his wife that he had kicked

Fleming out because he had caught Fleming smoking methamphetamine in the garage.

During the early morning hours of August 9, Baker and an accomplice (presumably

Fletcher) went to Cal-Maine and apparently wrapped Fleming’s body in plastic wrap. A

couple of days later, Baker moved Fleming to a white barn at Cal-Maine and, beginning

around 4:00 a.m. on August 12, he and an accomplice buried Fleming in a shallow grave

behind that barn. During the burial, concrete was poured over Fleming’s head.
                                                                                       -3-


       {¶ 5} Over the next several days, Baker took steps to hide or destroy evidence of

what he had done.

       {¶ 6} On August 18, 2022, Baker went to the apartment of his friend, Nora, and

asked her if he could burn items in her fire pit. When she asked what he had in his

bucket, he wrote a note telling her that “10 days back I sacrificed my only male friend to

Lucifer. I shot him in kitchen.” Baker listed items he needed to dispose of and wrote

that he “had him wrap[p]ed for 5 day.” Nora did not allow Baker to burn the items, and

she grabbed the note and tore it up. Later that day, Nora and her son-in-law took the

torn note to the police. She said Baker had written it and that the friend’s name was

“Corey.” Nora did not know Fleming.

       {¶ 7} An investigation ensued during which the Greenville police and the Darke

County Sheriff’s Office gathered extensive evidence tying Baker to the murder.

Fleming’s body was located at Cal-Maine on August 20, 2022. On August 21, Baker and

Fleming fled to Florida, where they were quickly apprehended. After his arrest, Baker

made several written and oral statements related to the shooting.

       {¶ 8} Baker ultimately was indicted in Darke County for murder with a firearm

specification, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. In December 2022, the

Darke County court granted Baker’s motion for a change of venue and transferred the

case to Clark County. On May 8, 2023, Baker filed a notice of self-defense, and a jury

trial commenced on May 31, 2023. After an eight-day trial, the jury found Baker guilty of

all offenses and the specification.

       {¶ 9} The trial court proceeded directly to sentencing and imposed 15 years to life
                                                                                          -4-


for the murder with an additional three years for the firearm specification, three years for

tampering with evidence, and one year for abuse of a corpse. The sentences were

ordered to be served consecutively for an aggregate term of 22 years to life in prison.

       {¶ 10} Baker appeals from his convictions, raising three assignments of error.

                 II. Sufficiency and Manifest Weight of the Evidence

       {¶ 11} In his first and second assignments of error, Baker claims that his conviction

for murder was based on insufficient evidence and against the manifest weight of the

evidence. He asserts that the State did not present evidence establishing that he did not

act in self-defense.    Baker does not challenge his convictions for tampering with

evidence and abuse of a corpse.

       A. Relevant Legal Standards

       {¶ 12} “A sufficiency of the evidence argument disputes whether the State has

presented adequate evidence on each element of the offense to allow the case to go to

the jury or sustain the verdict as a matter of law.” State v. Wilson, 2d Dist. Montgomery

No. 22581, 

, citing State v. Thompkins, 

, 

 (1997). The relevant inquiry is whether any rational finder of fact, viewing

the evidence in a light most favorable to the State, could have found the essential

elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Dennis, 

, 

 (1997). A guilty verdict will not be disturbed on appeal

unless “reasonable minds could not reach the conclusion reached by the trier-of-fact.”

       {¶ 13} In contrast, “[a] weight of the evidence argument challenges the believability
                                                                                           -5-


of the evidence and asks which of the competing inferences suggested by the evidence

is more believable or persuasive.” (Citation omitted.) Wilson at ¶ 12; see Eastley v.

Volkman, 

, 

, 

, ¶ 19. When reviewing

an argument challenging the weight of the evidence, an appellate court may not substitute

its view for that of the trier of fact. Rather, we review the entire record, weigh the

evidence and all reasonable inferences, consider the credibility of witnesses, and

determine whether, in resolving conflicts in the evidence, the finder of fact clearly lost its

way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be

reversed and a new trial ordered. 

, quoting State v. Martin, 

, 

 (1st Dist.1983). A judgment of conviction should be

reversed as being against the manifest weight of the evidence only in exceptional

circumstances. 

.

       {¶ 14} Baker was charged with murder, in violation of R.C. 2903.02(A), which

provides that “[n]o person shall purposefully cause the death of another * * *.” However,

a person may act in self-defense, defense of another, or defense of that person’s home.

R.C. 2901.05(B)(1).

       {¶ 15} To warrant an instruction on self-defense, there must be evidence

presented by the defendant that (1) he or she was not at fault in creating the violent

situation, (2) the defendant had a bona fide belief that he or she was in imminent danger

of death or great bodily harm and that the only way to escape was the use of force, and

(3) that the defendant did not violate any duty to retreat. State v. Messenger, 

, 

, 

; State v. Lovett, 2d Dist. Montgomery
                                                                                          -6-


No. 29240, 

. We note that a person no longer has a duty to retreat

before using force in self-defense “if that person is in a place in which the person lawfully

has a right to be.” R.C. 2901.09(B). Accordingly, the law has “remove[d], in most

cases, the duty to retreat before using self-defense.” State v. Degahson, 2d Dist. Clark

No. 2021-CA-35, 

; State v. Trigg, 2d Dist. Montgomery No. 29637,

.

       {¶ 16} If the defendant puts forth evidence that he or she acted in self-defense, the

prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused did not use force in

self-defense. R.C. 2901.05(B)(1); Lovett at ¶ 40. The State’s burden of disproving a

defendant’s self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt is subject to manifest weight

review on appeal. State v. Butler, 2d Dist. Montgomery No. 29754, 

, citing 

; State v. Knuff, Ohio Slip Opinion No. 

, __

N.E.3d __, ¶ 208 (a self-defense claim is not subject to review for sufficiency of the

evidence). This is the proper analysis because the defendant claiming self-defense does

not seek to negate an element of the crime, but rather to relieve himself from culpability.

 citing State v. Lanier, 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 110826, 

.

       {¶ 17} Circumstantial evidence has the same probative value as direct evidence.

State v. Jenks, 

, 

 (1991), citing State v. Nicely, 

, 

 (1988); State v. St. John, 2d Dist. Montgomery No.

27988, 

, ¶ 49. In some cases, “circumstantial evidence may be more

certain, satisfying, and persuasive than direct evidence.” State v. Jackson, 

, 

 (1991).
                                                                                       -7-


      B. Evidence Regarding Self-Defense

      {¶ 18} According to Baker, on the evening of August 7, 2022, after his wife had left

for work, he went to the garage to bring Fleming a soft drink and found Fleming smoking

methamphetamine. Drug use was not permitted at the Bakers’ home, and Fleming was

aware of that. Baker became upset, yelled at Fleming, and told him to leave.

      {¶ 19} Later that night, after he and his wife’s children had gone to bed, Baker

heard something in the house. He grabbed his 9mm Hi-Point from under his bed and

went into the kitchen. There, he heard a voice say, “I’m going to take everything from

you.” Baker turned and saw Fleming pointing a gun in his face. When Fleming looked

away, Baker raised his gun and fired, shooting Fleming once in the face. Baker testified

that he had been terrified and had believed he was in imminent danger; he had not known

if Fleming’s gun was loaded. Baker stated that he immediately checked on the children

after the shooting. He acknowledged that he did not call 911, but he testified that he did

not have a phone.

      {¶ 20} No one witnessed the shooting, and the exact reason for the confrontation

is unknown. However, there was substantial evidence, particularly Baker’s own actions

and statements, from which the jury could have reasonably concluded that Baker’s

version of events was not credible and that Baker had not acted in self-defense.

      {¶ 21} Between the shooting and the beginning of the police investigation, Baker

engaged in a determined effort to hide or destroy evidence of the killing.             He

acknowledged that he had dragged Fleming’s body outside, cleaned up his house, and

enclosed Fleming’s body in plastic wrap.        The State’s evidence showed that at
                                                                                       -8-


approximately 7:15 a.m. on August 8, 2022, after driving his wife’s children to the

babysitter, Baker drove to work at Cal-Maine in a silver Ford Mustang. He went inside

and told his supervisor that he thought he had left his stove on at his house and asked

for permission to return home to check.         Baker left and returned to Cal-Maine

approximately 40 minutes later in his Escalade. While at work, Baker put several items

into a work pick-up truck, drove to his Escalade, transferred Fleming’s body to the truck,

and drove it into the gray barn. (Fleming’s DNA was later found in the gray barn.) Baker

then changed his shirt and cleaned out the pick-up truck.

      {¶ 22} At approximately 3:15 a.m. on August 9, Baker and an accomplice

(presumably Fletcher) returned to Cal-Maine and wrapped Fleming’s body in plastic wrap

in the gray barn. Baker did not work on August 9 or 10. At approximately 11:30 a.m.

on August 11, Baker used a forklift to move Fleming’s body to a white barn at Cal-Maine.

Around 4:00 a.m. on August 12, Baker and an accomplice buried him behind that barn;

the surveillance camera facing the white barn was covered while they did so, but other

surveillance cameras captured movement there. During the next work day, Baker swept

the area in front of the white barn. Two days later, on August 16, Baker saw a co-worker

weed-whacking near where Fleming was buried. Baker took the weed whacker, said “let

me do it,” and cleared the area around Fleming’s grave himself. The co-worker testified

that Baker had never done that before.

      {¶ 23} Baker repeatedly went to Fletcher’s residence in the days following the

shooting and left items with her. Officers later found Fleming’s backpack hidden in a box

outside of Fletcher’s house. The backpack held several of his personal items, such as
                                                                                         -9-


his cell phone, hairbrush, markers, sunglasses, court documents, and vape pen.

         {¶ 24} Baker also attempted to remove evidence from the Escalade. On August

13, Baker purchased new floor mats for the Escalade from the Walmart in Greenville.

Officers later found them in Baker’s garage.      Fletcher’s neighbors testified that they

loaned her their Bissel Proheat upright carpet cleaner around 7:00 a.m. on August 14,

2022, and it was returned several hours later. The police towed the Escalade to a police

impound lot on August 18. Detective Morrisa Reed testified that when she opened the

vehicle’s door, there was a strong chemical smell and she could see that it had recently

been cleaned. The floor mats were missing. Nevertheless, Fleming’s DNA was found

on stains in the carpet located in the rear cargo area of the Escalade. A presumptive

test for blood used on a swab from the bottom of the carpet cleaner tested positive, but

the DNA profile was not sufficient for comparison. The neighbor testified that the carpet

cleaner was six months old, had only been used three times, and had not been used by

them to clean up blood.

         {¶ 25} On August 18, Baker went to his friend Nora’s apartment, seeking to use

her firepit to destroy evidence contained in a white 5-gallon bucket. He also asked her

to store two large Sterlite totes at her apartment. The note that Baker wrote listed items

that he needed to dispose of. Nora stated that Baker wanted to burn the note, but she

took it, tore it up, and told him, “There, it’s done.” Nora stated that Baker was “a little

upset” and “disappointed” that she would not let him use her firepit or leave his containers

there.

         {¶ 26} Nora suggested that Baker take the items to his grandmother’s residence,
                                                                                          -10-


a large property in Ithaca, Ohio. He did. During their search of Baker’s grandmother’s

property, law enforcement officers located the two 18-gallon Sterlite totes next to her

garage. One tote was inside a large black flex trash bag, and the other contained trash

bags with several items inside. (Baker had purchased 33-gallon black flex trash bags on

August 13.)       The two totes held, among other things, plastic wrap on which

decomposition fluid was present, ratchet straps, rope, a black rubber glove, mice bait, a

mattress cover, and other items that had been used to store and transport Fleming’s body.

In a small shed in a different area of the property, officers located a white 5-gallon bucket

containing more clear plastic stained with bodily fluids, an empty distilled water bottle, an

empty Sakrete bag, a bandana with an Indian skull ring, a Calvin Klein shirt, and other

items.

         {¶ 27} Nora appears to have been the first person (other than Fletcher) who Baker

told about the shooting. When Baker returned home after work on August 8, he informed

his wife that he had instructed Fleming to leave because he had caught Fleming smoking

methamphetamine in the garage. Baker did not mention to his wife that Fleming had

come back and/or that he had shot Fleming. After Fleming went missing, the mother of

Fleming’s child had visited Baker’s home to ask about Fleming’s whereabouts; Baker told

her Fleming was not there.

         {¶ 28} The   Greenville   Police   Department’s    investigation   into   Fleming’s

disappearance began on August 18, 2022, after Nora brought the note to Officer (now

Detective) Dale Dickmann. Baker became aware of the investigation later that day,

when Dickmann and Detective (now Sergeant) Joseph Monnin went to his residence to
                                                                                        -11-


speak with him.

       {¶ 29} Baker neither admitted to shooting Fleming nor raised self-defense when

he spoke with law enforcement officers on August 18. During his interaction with the

police at his home, Baker told Monnin and Dickmann that he had picked up Fleming from

the home of Fleming’s girlfriend at about 5:00 p.m. on August 7, that he and Fleming later

had an altercation due to Fleming’s use of meth in the garage, that he had kicked Fleming

out, and that Fleming had left.

       {¶ 30} After allowing the officers to look through his home and garage, Baker

agreed to appear at the police department to make a written statement. His written

statement similarly said that he had kicked out Fleming for using drugs. Baker wrote that

Fleming had come back a few days later and gathered the rest of his belongings but had

not returned for the remaining few items. (State’s Exhibit 2, the statement, was admitted

into evidence, but the exhibit is not part of our record. Detective Monnin, however, read

the exhibit at trial. See Trial Tr. 945-946.)

       {¶ 31} After providing his written statement, Baker spoke with Detective Monnin in

an interview room. He described how Fleming had lied to him and stolen from him, and

Baker again indicated that he had told Fleming to leave after finding him using drugs.

Baker said that he would never hurt Fleming and denied killing him. When asked about

a “confession letter,” Baker denied writing such a letter. When asked “what would you

say if we had a confession letter?” Baker responded, “Then you got me.” State’s Ex. 3.

       {¶ 32} After Fleming’s body was recovered, Baker attempted to evade capture and

fled the jurisdiction with Fletcher, his girlfriend. During the late afternoon on Saturday,
                                                                                       -12-


August 20, Baker left his residence on his motorcycle and did not return. On August 21,

law enforcement officers located Baker’s motorcycle at a residence north of Greenville.

Two notes were left with his motorcycle, one to his friend and another to his wife. They

both indicated that he was off on a journey “leading the lost.” While attempting to locate

Baker, detectives received information that Fletcher’s Kia was traveling southbound and

had been stopped in Knoxville, Tennessee. The U.S. Marshals tracked Fletcher’s cell

phone to Ocala, Florida, where she and Baker were apprehended on August 24, 2022.

The license plate from the Kia had been removed and replaced with stolen plates.

      {¶ 33} The mother of one of Baker’s ex-girlfriends provided testimony suggesting

that Baker had changed his appearance before he left Ohio. She testified that Baker

came by in August 2022 and asked if she remembered him and if the police came by a

lot. When she responded affirmatively, Baker left. The next afternoon, Baker returned,

but she did not immediately recognize him. She testified that Baker had changed his

appearance: he had shaved his head and wore a bandana. On August 23, she called

the police and spoke with Detective Reed about her recent contacts with Baker.

      {¶ 34} After Baker and Fletcher’s apprehension, Detectives Monnin and Rebecca

Prickett flew to Florida, and Detective Monnin interviewed Baker for approximately four

hours on August 26. Baker and Monnin discussed what had occurred on the night of the

shooting and the days following it.     For example, Monnin asked about the verbal

altercation with Fleming, evidence found at Cal-Maine, Fletcher’s cleaning of the

Escalade, how the totes were found at Baker’s grandmother’s house, and why he weed-

wacked around Fleming’s gravesite. Baker denied taking the totes to his grandmother’s
                                                                                         -13-


home and seeing Fleming in the barns at Cal-Maine, and he provided explanations for

some of his behavior around and following the shooting. However, he asserted that his

conduct regarding Fleming was limited to kicking him out. Baker never admitted to

shooting Fleming, and he did not claim to have acted in self-defense. To the contrary,

he again stated that he had not hurt Fleming or moved his body. Baker disavowed

knowledge of the note he wrote at Nora’s residence. See State’s Ex. 24.

       {¶ 35} Baker testified that he had asserted that he acted in self-defense when

speaking with Nora and later when he spoke with Detective Monnin on August 31, 2022,

after he was returned to Darke County. However, Nora’s testimony did not support his

claim of self-defense. She testified that when she asked Baker what had happened, he

told her the following:

       He said that the individual was in his kitchen pointing a gun at him saying, I

       know you had an affair with my girlfriend or fiancée and I could kill you right

       here. And I guess there, I don’t know what else was said, some words

       were exchanged between each other. And Dean said, I assume the gun

       wasn’t loaded so I took the gun away from him and I loaded the gun and I

       popped him between the eyes.

Trial Tr. 186.

       {¶ 36} As for his one-and-a-half-hour interview with Detective Monnin on August

31, 2022, the State’s evidence showed that Baker gave a variety of inconsistent

statements and did not claim self-defense. Discussing the interview, Detective Monnin

testified that he decided to suggest self-defense to Baker – something that Baker had
                                                                                        -14-


never raised himself – to get Baker to confess to the killing. See Trial Tr. 1019. Monnin

continued: “So I go in there and I say, so Corey [Fleming] came into the house with a

gun? Because there was a statement I think made by Nora that that might have been

said initially.   And so I’m trying to give him like the out of just giving me the final

confession that he’s killed Corey and so I’m the one who actually bring up the self-defense

claim.” Monnin indicated that Baker went along with it “[f]or a little while * * *. [Baker]

says, yeah, Corey did come in [with] the gun but the gun was unloaded. I knew it was

unloaded and I was able to get the gun away from him.” Trial Tr. 1020. Baker never

told Detective Monnin that he had killed Corey.

        {¶ 37} Monnin further testified that he had told Baker that the prosecutor might be

willing to make a deal. Baker had responded that he wanted Fletcher to walk free of

everything and he would tell them what they wanted to know.           Baker then noticed

Monnin’s recorder on the table, got angry, and asked the detective to erase it. Monnin

stopped the recording but did not erase it. Baker then told Monnin that the prosecutor

should leave it as “aggravated” (meaning aggravated murder), that he was a “bad

person,” and that he deserved it. Several minutes later, Baker claimed that he did not

know who pulled the trigger and suggested that Fleming may have died by suicide. Soon

after, Baker suggested that he planned the killing “if it cancels out what I said before.”

State’s Ex 81. Baker also pointed Detective Monnin toward other suspects, such as

Fletcher’s husband, the Cal-Maine security guard, and Fleming’s former girlfriend.

        {¶ 38} The State also refuted Baker’s claim of self-defense with the testimony of

Daniel Campbell, who was incarcerated with Baker at the Darke County Jail on
                                                                                        -15-


September 1, 2022. In a September 12, 2022 letter to Fletcher, Baker wrote that the two

had “bonded, became family within seconds” and that he had shared stories about

“sh*tpants.” State’s Ex. 118.

       {¶ 39} According to Campbell, Baker had learned that Fletcher had spent the night

with Fleming in the garage, that Baker and Fleming had gotten into a “heated argument

inside the house,” and that Baker had retrieved a gun from his bedroom and shot Fleming.

Trial Tr. 737. Baker told Campbell that he had used his wife’s .380 caliber handgun.

Campbell continued:

       * * * He said he shot him in the face. He just pointed in the face area. He

       said he shot him one time in the face. He said the bullet, it went all the way

       through. Corey fell straight down to the floor and when he did, he started

       to bleed and he went and got plastic wrap and wrapped his face up with

       plastic wrap. * * * He said that after he shot him he told him, I told you,

       mother-f-er, I was going to kill you.

Trial Tr. 738.

       {¶ 40} Campbell testified that Fleming’s bladder and bowels reportedly released

while Baker was cleaning up the small amount of blood on the floor, so Baker wrapped

Fleming’s body section in plastic wrap and then dragged him to the garage. Baker then

called Fletcher. He told her what he had done, and they borrowed Baker’s mother’s truck

to move Fleming’s body to Cal-Maine, where Baker worked. Baker told Campbell that

they had used ratchet straps to hold the body in the truck and had planned to leave the

body by the house next to Cal-Maine, where Fletcher’s husband lived.              However,
                                                                                         -16-


because Fletcher’s husband was home, they took Fleming’s body and buried him behind

a maintenance building on the Cal-Maine property. While doing so, they poured cement

over Fleming’s face and covered the hole. Campbell understood that this all happened

the same night as the murder.

       {¶ 41} Campbell further relayed that Baker had described what he had done with

evidence of the crime. Campbell said that the ratchet straps, plastic wrap, and other

things were taken to his grandmother’s house. The truck reportedly was taken back to

his mother’s house after cleaning it and getting new floor mats.

       {¶ 42} Finally, Baker wrote numerous letters from jail in which he asserted that he

was innocent of killing Fleming and speculated about who might be responsible instead.

See State’s Exs. 116-132, 900-901. Several letters accused Baker’s wife of the murder,

and in one letter sent to his mother, Baker described a plan to frame his wife. See, e.g.,

State’s Ex. 123, 129, 132. His letters also conveyed explanations that he was giving for

his actions, such as that he had gone to Florida to look for work in advance of moving

there with hi wife and that Fletcher had come with him because he had used her car.

E.g., State’s Ex. 119. Baker was surprised to learn that his letters sent to people outside

the jail had been read by jail personnel. State’s Exs. 105, 111.

       {¶ 43} In his closing argument, defense counsel highlighted that Fleming had free

rein within the Bakers’ home, that his fingerprints were found on the magazine of his wife’s

.380 firearm (a different weapon than what Baker said he had used), and that

methamphetamine was found in Fleming’s system during his autopsy.                  Counsel

reiterated that Baker had mentioned self-defense to Nora while he was with her.
                                                                                          -17-


Addressing the elements of self-defense, counsel argued that Baker had had no duty to

retreat in his own home, that Fleming had pointed a gun at Baker, that Baker could have

had an honest belief that the gun was loaded when the shooting occurred, and that Baker

had not created the situation when he was approached by his friend, who was recently

evicted and high on meth.

      {¶ 44} Baker testified at length at trial, and he offered various explanations for

many of his actions and for his writings. It was the province of the jury, as the trier of

fact, to assess the witnesses’ credibility and determine whether the State had proven

beyond a reasonable doubt that Baker had committed the shooting and not acted in self-

defense. In reaching its verdict, the jury was free to believe all, part, or none of each

witness’s testimony. State v. Peterson, 2d Dist. Montgomery No. 29061, 2021-Ohio-

3947, ¶ 27. Upon review of the evidence, we cannot conclude that the jury lost its way

when it ostensibly credited the State’s witnesses and found that Baker had not acted in

self-defense when he shot and killed Fleming. Indeed, Baker’s behavior and statements

prior to trial strongly supported a conclusion that he did not. Baker’s conviction for

murder was based on sufficient evidence and was not against the manifest weight of the

evidence.

      {¶ 45} Baker’s first and second assignments of error are overruled.

                                 III. Bond Modification

      {¶ 46} Baker’s third assignment of error asserts that the trial court erred in revoking

his bond the week before trial when no bond violation had occurred.

      {¶ 47} The record reflects that the court modified Baker’s bond from $150,000
                                                                                 -18-


(which he had posted) to $500,000 on May 25, 2023. However, Baker has now been

convicted of the charged offenses. Any error concerning pretrial bail is moot once a

conviction has occurred. State v. Drummond, 

, 

, 

, ¶ 206; State v. Smith, 2d Dist. Montgomery No. 28265, 

. Accordingly, Baker’s third assignment of error is overruled as moot.

                                    IV. Conclusion

      {¶ 48} The trial court’s judgment will be affirmed.

                                    .............



TUCKER, J. and HUFFMAN, J., concur.