Prosecutors say they don’t have to ‘fish’ for evidence helpful to Nasser Hamad’s defense

By Ed Runyan | March 25, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

nasser hamad case

WARREN

Prosecutors have no obligation to go on a “fishing expedition” to obtain evidence favorable to a defendant, the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office said in a filing Friday in the Nasser Hamad aggravated-murder case.

Hamad’s attorney asked Judge Ronald Rice to order prosecutors to obtain search warrants to collect evidence from “third parties that are not state agents,” prosecutors said.

Specifically, Atty. Geoffrey Oglesby asked the judge to order prosecutors to obtain evidence from the cell phones, Facebook accounts, computers and other electronic devices for evidence of crimes committed against Hamad by the two people killed and three injured during a confrontation at Hamad’s Howland home Feb. 25.

Hamad, 47, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and several counts of attempted aggravated murder in the Feb. 25 shootings at his house on state Route 46 in a dispute that began earlier that day on Facebook.

“The state of Ohio has the power to gather evidence that crimes were perpetuated against [Hamad] by the group of five,” Oglesby said in his March 16 filing.

But prosecutors say Oglesby “cites not one shred of legal authority” for his request for the phone and other records to be seized. Their filing says prosecutors are “not required to go on defense-requested fishing expeditions.”

Before a defendant can ask for prosecutors to search for records, he or she must make a preliminary showing that such records “actually contain” information helpful to their case, prosecutors said.

“The specific material the defendant has requested are basically the conversations through text messages and Facebook communications that led to the defendant luring five victims to his home in order to kill and maim them,” the filing says.

And the only “relevant conversations” would be the ones leading up to the shootings, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have obtained a search warrant for the text and Facebook information from Hamad’s phone, and those will be made available to the defense as soon as possible, prosecutors said.

Oglesby, of Sandusky, has filed several motions seeking to to focus attention on what he says were the crimes committed by the five who were killed or injured.

In the filing related to the cellphones and other electronic information from the five, Oglesby said prosecutors “must turn over to the defense evidence” that is helpful to the defendant’s case if it is “reasonably available to the state.”