State v. Pickens (Slip Opinion)

{¶ 1} This is an appeal of right by defendant-appellant, Mark Pickens, who was convicted of the aggravated murders of Noelle Washington, her nine-month-old son, Anthony Jones III, and three-year-old Sha’railyn Wright. A jury recommended the death sentence for the three murders, and the trial court sentenced Pickens to death.

{¶ 2} For the following reasons, we affirm Pickens’s convictions and sentence of death.

I. Trial Evidence

{¶ 3} Evidence introduced at trial showed that Pickens shot and killed Noelle and the two children in Noelle’s Cincinnati apartment after Noelle reported to the police…