On Aug. 2, 2023, Springfield police responded to North Spring and East North streets regarding a traffic accident and gunshots heard in the area. Rakeem Ford, 32, was found in a parking lot near 150 N. Limestone St., the Springfield post office.
According to an affidavit to obtain a search warrant in Franklin County, traffic camera footage in Springfield showed the driver of a Chevrolet Equinox open the window before shooting several times at Ford’s Nissan Altima and driving off.
According to the affidavit, Ford fled from his car after it crashed and “went down” in the parking lot behind the post office. The Chevrolet Equinox followed him into the lot, and shell casings and a piece of the car’s front bumper were found at the scene.
Ford died of his injuries at the hospital, according to the affidavit.
Fleming had been shot on July 5 on West Main Street, according to the affidavit. He was transported to Mercy Health - Springfield and throughout the course of the investigation, he posted on Snapchat that he would “seek revenge,” according to the document.
Fleming is believed to be the driver of the Chevrolet on Aug. 2 after review of video footage showed a matching windshield sticker, a missing front license plate and damaged front bumper matching the car that took him home from the hospital when he was shot in July and the car seen in Ford’s shooting.
The state subpoenaed a witness to appear at trial but she did not and a warrant was issued for her arrest, according to appeal documents. The state filed a motion to play a recorded call between the woman and a detective on the case for the jury, saying that she did not testify “because of inference either directed or on behalf of” Fleming.
In a hearing in front of the trial judge outside of the jury, prosecutors played a recording of a jail call between Fleming and another woman in which the woman brought up the witness. Fleming and the woman spoke and Fleming asked if she had “hollered” at another man, “Tuna,” with the woman saying she had but that the witness wouldn’t answer her phone.
The woman said the witness was friends with both Fleming and Ford.
The appeals court earlier this month ruled that there was insufficient evidence to infer that Fleming prevented the testimony, noting that the phone call took place a day after the witness was scheduled to appear. It said prosecutors “failed to establish by the preponderance of the evidence that Fleming’s conduct acted to forfeit his constitutional right to confront [the witness] at trial.”
The trial court judgment was reversed and the case now goes back to the Clark County Common Pleas Court to be retried.
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