The Seventh District Court of Appeals has upheld a guilty verdict rendered in Boardman Court on a Mar. 13, 2023 theft of three cans of Platinum Bud beer valued at $8.07 at Sheetz, 134 Boardman-Poland Rd.
      Frank Notte, 55, of 869 Carlton Dr., Cambell, Oh., had appealed the verdict and during the court process, he obtained two, different attorneys, both appointed at public cost.
      In finding Notte guilty in Boardman Court, Judge Joseph Houser suspended a 180 day jail sentence, ordered Notte to serve 12 months of community control and five days of community service; fined the man $100 and ordered him to stay off the property of Sheetz.
      A decision authored by Seventh District Judge Mark Hanni upheld the guilty verdict.
      Judge Hanni noted that Sheetz provided police with two photographs---one of the suspect in the theft, and another photo captured the vehicle in which the suspect fled from the business.
      Judge Hanni’s decision notes that Deborah Green, a store manager, had testified about 11:22 a.m. on Mar. 13, 2023, that she observed Notte “enter the beer cave, take beer and proceed out the door” and the store’s closed-circuit video surveillance captured Notte stealing the suds and leaving without paying.
      In Boardman Court, Notte testified he was not the person shown on the store’s surveillance video, although he did admit to previously driving the car that was identified by its license plate number as being at Sheetz. Notte claimed that the person in the video was the car owner’s boyfriend.
      His case in Boardman Court was not decided until Mar. 5, 2024, after which Notte’s second counsel filed an appeal claiming the court erred in its verdict “in the absence of sufficient evidence and contrary to due process and the fifth and 14th amendments to the United State Constitution, and Article 1/Section 16 of the Ohio Constitution; and the verdict against Notte “was against the manifest weight of evidence.”
      In Boardman Court, Notte testified the person who had committed the theft was the vehicle’s owner who drove away from Sheetz, and that the manager, Green, “only saw the perpetrator face-to-face for a couple of seconds.”
      His counsel in the appeal to the Seventh District Court contended that “Viewing an individual for only a couple of seconds is insufficient to identify someone previously unknown.”
      Judge Hanni (in an opinion about which Appealate Judges Carol Ann Robb and Katelyn Dickey concurred) said “We conclude that sufficient evidence supports [Notte’s] theft conviction...
      “There was ample evidence...establishing that [Notte] was the individual who committed the theft from Sheetz. Thus we conclude that [Notte’s] conviction is supported by the manifest weight of evidence...
      “We affirm [Judge Houser’s] decision.”