Federal appeals court upholds Elyria man's robbery convictions

A federal appeals court has rejected an Elyria man's appeal of his conviction for planning the robbery of a Marathon gas station in Elyria in May 2019. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld 34-year-old Jonathan Donnell's conviction and sentence. The ruling was 3-0 by judges Karen Nelson Moore, Amul Thapar and Joan Larsen. Moore wrote the decision, which was handed down Tuesday. A federal jury found Donnell guilty of two charges: Aiding and abetting interference with commerce by robbery, and aiding and abetting another in using or carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in June 2021. He was sentenced to 13½ years in prison by U.S. District Judge John Adams in October 2021. On appeal, Donnell argued that there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict him, that Adams failed to admit the entire evidence of his jail calls at trial, that his right to a jury "drawn from a fair cross-section of the community" and that his sentence was unreasonable. The appeals court found that there was enough evidence to sustain a conviction: Donnell not only texted and called Joseph Geiger, who was one of the two masked robbers who committed the crime, but also searched online "for terms including: 'Robbery: What is the best way to rob a store?'; 'How to rob a bank as told by an actual bank robber;' 'How to break glass silently;' and 'Robbery. How to best rob a store?'" He also provided the guns and zip ties used and the masks worn by Geiger and Michael Ward during the robbery, according to the appeals court. According to the appeals court, "active participation in the planning phase of an armed robbery constitutes intent to bring about the offense." Ward knew Donnell because he was dating Donnell's sister, living with her at the time and is the father of some of her children, according to federal court records. Ward eventually confessed to the robbery and implicated Donnell and Geiger. Ward testified against Donnell at trial, and Donnell admitted to the robbery in phone calls to his mother, according to court records. "A rational jury could have chosen to credit Ward's testimony," Moore wrote in the court's decision, as well as look at cellphone records and recorded phone calls sufficient enough to prove Donnell facilitated the robbery. He also failed to present any evidence that jury selection was unfair, unreasonable or excluded Black jurors, according to the federal appeals court. Donnell is Black, and only two of the 49 prospective jurors in the pool of jurors selected to potentially hear Donnell's case were Black, according to the appeals court's ruling. "Although the number of Black potential jurors in Donnell's venire (jury pool) does appear to be troublingly low, we cannot determine whether this level of representation is fair and reasonable without reference to some data regarding the percentage of African Americans within the population eligible for jury service," Moore wrote. The appeals court also rejected Donnell's argument that not playing the entirety of the recorded jail calls was wrong. Background The case was investigated by the Elyria Police Department and the FBI. Officers first responded shortly before 10 p.m. May 5, 2019, to a reported armed robbery at the Marathon gas station on Huron Street. Authorities previously said that two masked gunmen stole approximately $30,000 in cash and cigarettes and bound a store employee with zip ties. Federal court records said one suspect had a black semi-automatic pistol while another had a black revolver, and video surveillance footage revealed both were men, one white and one Black. The robbers threatened to shoot the clerk if she didn't open the safe and one of them put a gun to her back, according to federal court records. When a customer pulled up outside, the robbers ordered her to lock up the store. The clerk took that chance to set off a silent hold-up alarm while the robbers hid from the customer, their guns pointed at her the whole time, according to court records. They took the cash and cigarettes and fled. Geiger was found walking on Lowell Street in the area when Elyria police showed up. They had no reason to detain him and let him go, but it later turned out he had lied to officers and said he had just gotten off work. In the meantime, officers found a loaded .32-caliber revolver, cash and coins, plastic zip ties, a black ski mask, coveralls, and other clothing hidden between two nearby houses. Geiger returned to the scene. He smelled of alcohol, said he was coming from Donnell's house, was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and his cellphone was seized as evidence. Witnesses later told Elyria police that Geiger bragged about planning a robbery with Donnell and Ward prior to the crime. Cellphone data and evidence also showed Donnell and Geiger texted and called each other the night of the robbery to discuss the robbery, according to federal court records. Donnell was also supposed to be the getaway driver but drove off before Geiger and Ward made it back to the getaway car, according to federal court records. Tests by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation also found Geiger's DNA on the ski mask and Ward's DNA on the revolver. Geiger is serving 13 years in federal prison for his role in the robbery. Ward got a nine-year federal prison sentence. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.