Vincent Doan Trial: 1997

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Vincent Doan Trial: 1997

Defendant: Vincent Doan
Crimes Charged: Murder, kidnapping
Chief Defense Lawyers: John H. Rion, Jon Paul Rion (criminal trial); John H. Rion, Kort Gatterdam (sentencing hearing)
Chief Prosecutor: William Peelle
Judge: William McCracken
Place: Wilmington, Ohio
Date of Trial: July 21, 1997-August 7, 1997
Verdict: Guilty on one count of aggravated murder and three counts of kidnapping; not guilty on one count of aggravated murder and one count of kidnapping
Sentence: Life imprisonment without parole

SIGNIFICANCE: Not for the first time, this case demonstrates that a conviction for murder does not require the victim's body or any conclusive proof of the victim's death when there is strong circumstantial evidence that a murder has been committed and the accused did the crime.

It seemed as if Vincent Doan was two people. Friends and relatives described him as an extremely polite individual who, as a boy, cried at movies like The Wizard of Oz and later, as an adult, would buy a puppy for a friend. However, when it came to Clarissa Ann ("Carrie") Culberson, 22, Doan was a different man.

Doan and Culberson lived in Blanchester, Ohio, a rural community of fewer than 5,000 residents about 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati. At the time of her disappearance, Culberson resided with her divorced mother, Debra Culberson, and her 15-year-old sister, Christina. She worked part-time as a nail technician at two hair studios. After high school she lived in neighboring Midland with a female friend. It was then that she started to date Doan.

The couple's 3-year relationship was violent. Doan was known to push and punch Culberson and to drag her by her hair. Culberson once filed assault charges against Doan, alleging that he hit her in the head with a space heater. Doan also called Culberson at work at least five times every day and beat her when he caught her talking to male friends. Then, on August 29, 1996, Culberson disappeared.

Culberson's Disappearance

At about 6 a.m. on August 29, 1996, Debra Culberson noticed that Carrie and Carrie's red Honda CRX were gone. She and Christina drove around town to find her. Carrie's father, Roger Culberson, and two friends who had been with Carrie the night before soon joined the search. Nine days later, more than 300 volunteers spent the weekend looking through the forests, fields, and abandoned buildings in and around Blanchester. The Culberson family offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for Carrie's disappearance. Television programs such as Inside Edition and The Oprah Winfrey Show featured stories about the case. Still, neither Culberson nor her car was ever found. Then, in March 1997, Doan was indicted on four counts of kidnapping Culberson. Three months later, two counts of aggravated murder were added.

The trial began on July 21, 1997, at the Clinton County Courthouse in Wilmington, Ohio. During the trial, the prosecution called 23 people to the stand; the defense, 28. Despite the lack of a body or any decisive proof that Carrie Culberson was dead, the prosecution presented two theories to the jury. The first was that Doan was obsessed with Culberson and he murdered her when he found that he could not control her. The second was that Doan kidnapped and killed Culberson to prevent her from pursuing the assault charges she filed after he hit her with the space heater.

The first of the prosecution's key witnesses was Jessica Williams, a friend of Culberson's. Williams testified that on the evening before Culberson's disappearance, the two participated in a volleyball game in Morrow, about 10 miles away from Blanchester. During the game, Doan showed up and tried to get Culberson to leave, but she refused. After the game, Williams and Culberson returned to Blanchester and, at Carrie's request, they drove by Doan's residence twice before Williams dropped her off.

Kimberly Lannerd, a neighbor of the Culbersons who had a habit of sitting on her porch on late summer evenings, testified that Carrie was dropped off at the Culberson home at about 11:45 p.m. on August 28, 1996. Shortly afterward Lannerd saw Carrie's car backing out of the driveway without its headlights on. "The headlights being off stayed in my mind" she said. "They were put on about halfway down the street."

A third witness, Billie Jo Brown, lived across the street from Doan. Getting off work at around 11:40 p.m. on August 28, 1996, she walked home and went to bed about 50 minutes later. Just as she was lying down, Brown heard loud voices outside. Looking out her bedroom window, she saw a little red car parked at the intersection between her and Doan's house. Going to her kitchen window, Brown then saw a young woman in her yard running away from a man. Due to both the brightness of the street light in her front yard and a full moon, Brown recognized the couple as Doan and a lady that Brown had seen at Doan's residence a few times every week. According to Brown, the woman was screaming, "Help me!" while Doan shouted, "I told you next time I'd kill you, you fucking bitch." Once Doan caught up with the woman, he continually punched her while she used her fist to try to get away. Brown, who did not have a phone in her house, immediately alerted her husband, who told her not to worry because there was probably drinking involved. Brown heard tires squealing and when she looked out the window, the couple and the car were gone.

Also on the witness stand were Vicki Watson and Lori Baker, the former sister-in-law and former wife of Doan's half-brother, Tracy Baker.

Watson testified that she slept at the Baker residence during the night of Culberson's disappearance. At about 3:15 a.m., Watson heard a knock on the door. She did not answer it, but peered through the blinds. Outside on the lit deck was Doan with no shirt on, his right hand holding his left arm, and his hair messed up. She did not see any blood. Doan and Tracy Baker were talking, but Watson could not hear what was said. One half hour later, Doan and Tracy Baker left. Shortly afterward, Lori Baker took Watson to work.

On the witness stand, Lori confirmed that when Doan appeared at her home at 3:15 that morning, he was wearing only jeans and that his right hand was holding his left arm. She added that Doan's chest was smeared with blood. According to Baker, Doan and Tracy Baker talked awhile before Tracy Baker came inside and asked if there were any garbage bags. Doan took a shower before he left with Tracy Baker and the garbage bags and a gun at 3:30 or 3:45 a.m.

According to Lori Baker, Doan and her husband were back at the Baker residence by 5:50 a.m. Lori gave Tracy some bleach and a scrub brush and he took them to Doan who was again showering. Lori testified that there was blood on Tracy's clothes and that she saw him wipe off some blood from his boots. (Blood samples taken from Tracy Baker's boots, truck, and towel were too degraded for testing.)

Past Physical Abuse

There was also testimony about Doan's previously abusive treatment of Culberson. Culberson's boss at G & G Hair Studio, Desiree Gruber, told the jury that Carrie once came to work with a black eye. On another occasion, Culberson had bruises on her temple and fingerprint marks on her neck. One month before Carrie disappeared, Gruber testified that while shampooing Culberson's hair, she discovered medical staples on the back of Carrie's head. Culberson told Gruber that Doan had hit her with a space heater and that she was pressing charges.

Mitchell Epperson, Doan's jailmate while Doan was at the Queensgate Correctional Facility in November 1996 on traffic charges, testified that the two of them talked about girlfriends. That's when Doan said, "You can't let them walk. You got to make them pay." Doan also told Epperson that, concerning Culberson, he would "lie awake at night and think of a 100 different ways to kill her before I did."

The prosecution's final witness was Debra Culberson. One time, according to Debra, Doan said, "I've always slapped her [Carrie] around. I never hit her with my fist, I just slapped her." Debra also told the jury of how she approached Doan three times on August 29, 1996. Each time, Doan gave a different story about when he had last seen her. First, he told Debra that he had not seen Carrie for three days. A few hours later, Doan said that Carrie had come by his house at about 12:30 that morning. According to Doan, Carrie was honking her car horn and weaving inside her vehicle. He believed that she was drunk, so he closed the door to his house and ignored her until she left. The third time that he spoke to Debra, Doan told her that Carrie had arrived at about 12:30 a.m. and that he and Carrie went into his house. They argued and Carrie drove away after Doan told her that he did not love her anymore.

The defense tried to argue that there was nothing unusual about the relationship between Doan and Culberson. They also relied on the fact that there was no body or any other solid evidence that Culberson was dead. Indeed, Doan's lawyers argued that Culberson was still alive and called several witnesses who claimed to have seen her or her car since her disappearance.

Three women who were travelling together picked up a female hitchhiker on August 31, 1996, in Mount Orab (about 20 miles from Blanchester). They all testified that the woman resembled the picture of Culberson that was televised that weekend, but two of them also stated that the hitchhiker never mentioned Blanchester.

This same hitchhiker supposedly bought a soft drink at a store on August 31, but one of the store clerks couldn't remember what the young woman looked liked.

Other witnesses who claimed to have seen Culberson included one woman who spotted a red Honda CRX a week after Carrie's disappearance and said that the first four characters on the license plate was ROL 4. Culberson's missing car had the license plate number ROL 402. This witness admitted, however, that she had poor vision in one eye and that, when she was following the car, she was "hoping" that it was Culberson.

Kenneth Lancaster, a police officer from Norwood, Ohio, reported that he had observed a small red speeding car at about 4:30 a.m. on May 16, 1997. He only got a "quick glance" of the vehicle because it was traveling at a "full rate of speed" and, after a 30 or 40-minute search, he was unable to find the car. When Lancaster reported the vehicle to the police dispatcher, he wasn't sure about its license plate number, so he gave two, ROL 402 and RQL 402. By the time of Doan's trial, Lancaster had concluded that he had made a mistake. At no time before or during the trial did Lancaster say that he could identify the model of the car or its occupants.

Doan's stepfather, Lawrence Baker, testified to a possible alibi, saying that at about 1 a.m. on August 29 he and his wife, Betty, had received a call from their son who was calling from a friend's home in nearby Clermont County. (Phone records confirmed the timing of the call. The person from whose residence the call was made had earlier testified he observed no blood or bruises on Doan. The prosecution contended that Doan murdered Carrie after this call was made.)

Baker told the jury that, according to his stepson, a truck that Doan had borrowed from him had broken down about 15 miles away from Blanchester in Marathon. Baker suggested that Doan let the vehicle sit idle for a few minutes and, if the truck did not start then, to call back. Baker also stated that this particular truck could not travel faster than 45 or 50 miles an hour. Mr. and Mrs. Baker then waited about 15 or 20 minutes and, not hearing anything from Doan, they went to the other end of Blanchester to pick up another vehicle. On their way back, the couple stopped by Doan's house at about 1:30 a.m. and found Doan asleep on the couch with his front door open and his lights and TV on. However, when the prosecuting attorney cross-examined Baker and questioned how Doan could have driven from Marathon in a truck that could go only 45 or 50 miles an hour and still be home and asleep by 1:30, Baker pushed back his estimate of when he saw his son to 2 a.m.

Jury deliberations began on August 4, 1997. For four days, the six-man, six-woman jury deliberated. On August 7, Doan was found not guilty of premeditated murder. However, it did find Doan guilty of the charge that he had killed Culberson after he had kidnapped her and on three of the four kidnapping charges.

Three months later, the jury met to decide Doan's fate. He faced the death penalty, but the jury recommended life imprisonment without parole.

—Mark A. Thorburn