State v. Brown

The State of Ohio (the state) (plaintiff) charged Central Brown (defendant) with crimes including felonious assault of a peace officer, which Ohio law defined to include attempting to cause physical harm to a peace officer by means of a deadly weapon. At trial, the state presented testimony from two witnesses who had been in a car with Brown on the evening of the alleged assault. One witness had been driving the car, and one witness had been a backseat passenger. The witnesses testified that Brown had been a passenger in the car’s front seat and that Brown had fired a loaded gun at a house four times after being told that the house belonged to a police officer. The state also presented testimony from the driver’s girlfriend, who testified about a conversation with Brown in which Brown told the girlfriend that Brown had shot at the officer’s house. The state also presented evidence that the house was a peace officer’s house, that three bullets had been fired into the house on the night in question, and that lights in the house were on at the time of the shooting, but the officer was not home. The jury returned a guilty verdict on the felonious-assault charge, and the trial court entered a judgment of conviction. Brown appealed, arguing, among other things, that the appellate court should recognize an impossibility defense that would prevent Brown from being convicted of felonious assault of a peace officer because the peace officer was not home at the time of the shooting.