State vs. Frankie E. Casteel

Following a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of the first-degree murders of Richard Mason, Kenneth Griffith and Earl Smock in the Hamilton County Criminal Court, Douglas A. Myer, J., and the defendant appealed. The Court holds (1) that the trial court's failure to follow statutory procedures before admitting evidence that the defendant had committed prior bad acts was harmless error; (2) evidence that the defendant had threatened trespassers was properly admitted; (3) the evidence was sufficient to convict the defendant; (4) failure to swear-in the jury prior to voir dire was at most harmless error where the jury was impaneled in another county and sworn in there; (5) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow the defendant to present alternative perpetrator evidence when that evidence was too far removed in time and place to connect it to the murders; (6) the trial court's failure to suppress evidence found on the defendant's property was proper because the evidence was seized during a search for the victims; (7) testimony about the contents of incriminating letters and newspaper articles was necessary to explain the defendant's attempt to destroy them; (8) the trial court properly allowed the state to cross examine the defendant about items seized from his home; but (9) the admission of five hours of an extremely prejudicial conversation between the defendant, his wife and his mistress in order to allow the jury to hear one adoptive admission was reversible error, especially when (10) the state relied on the unfairly prejudicial portion of the conversation when arguing its case to the jury in order to highlight the defendant's character. Reversed and remanded.