The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Appellate District released 14 decisions in criminal cases out of Summit County during December of 2013. My summaries of these cases appear below.
State v. Wood, 2013-Ohio-5802, released on December 31, 2013, affirmed Wood's criminal conviction for drug possession by the Summit County Common Pleas Court. Wood argued that the assistant prosecutor trying the case engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by introducing evidence that Wood had used a drug scale, a plate, and a razor blade to weigh and cut crack cocaine. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and found that the evidence was relevant to show that Wood possessed the drugs involved in the charge.
State v. Tayse, 2013-Ohio-5801,released on December 31, 2013, affirmed the denial of a petition for post-conviction relief by the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. The Court of Appeals held that the trial court ruled correctly when it held that the petition was filed untimely.
State v. Carson, 2013-Ohio-5785, released on December 31, 2013, affirmed Mrs. Carson's conviction for one count of attempted deception to obtain a dangerous drug, a first degree misdemeanor. Mrs. Carson argued that her attorney was ineffective in not presenting certain evidence to the jury. The Court of Appeals pointed out that on that issue Mrs. Carson had the burden of proof on the issue that her trial attorney was not effective and that she didn't meet that burden. She also argued that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain the State's burden of proof and that her verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence. Two judges of the appellate panel rejected all of Mrs. Carson's assignments of error. Judge Carla Moore would have sustained Mrs. Carson's manifest weight of the evidence assignment of error.
State v. Culp, 2013-Ohio-5799, released on December 31, 2013, reversed a decision of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. The reversal was because the trial court did not conduct an analysis of the offenses for which Culp was convicted to see if they merged for purposes of sentencing. The case was remanded so that the trial court could conduct such an analysis.
State v. Bostick, 2013-Ohio-5784, released on December 31, 2013, sustained the defendant's convictions in the Summit County Common Pleas Court. Bostick had argued that the assistant prosecutor trying the case had unconstitutionally used her peremptory challenges to dismiss female jurors. The trial court conducted a brief hearing outside the presence of the jurors and overruled all three of the objections. The Court of Appeals affirmed. It held that Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 89 (1986), does not require a trial judge to conduct a in-depth hearing when ruling on a Batson challenge.
Bostick also argued that a jury, and not the trial judge, should have determined whether he was a repeat violent offender. This assignment of error was also overruled.
Editor's Note: I was not able to view the decision of State v. Maffei, 2013-Ohio-5787, which was also released on December 31, 2013.
State v. Hrnjak, 2013-Ohio-5726, released on December 26, 2013, affirmed the denial of the defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea and/or for post-conviction relief. Hrnjak argued that his defense attorney failed to correctly advise him regarding the impact a conviction would have on his immigration status in the United States. He also alleged that the trial court erred in not conducting a live hearing instead of determining the motions from the record. Both assignments of error were overruled. Judge Carr's concurring opinion contains an interesting analysis of a recent United States Supreme Court decision regarding the duty of defense counsel in a criminal case to advise about the effects on a defendant's immigration status in the United States.
State v. Hill, 2013-Ohio-5725, released on December 26, 2013, affirmed in part and reversed in part Hill's convictions for murder and felonious assault. Hill was charged with two counts of murder and four counts of felonious assault. He was found guilty of all charges and also found guilty of having a firearm when he committed the offenses. At sentencing the trial judge found that count two, which was for murder, merged into count one, also for murder. The judge also found that count four, for felonious assault, merged into count one.
On appeal Hill argued that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for murder. He also argued that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction for felonious assault on count three. The Court of Appeals overruled his assignment of error on the murder count but granted the assignment of error on the felonious assault count. In particular the appellate court found that the injuries received by the victim prior to being shot did not arise to the level of "serious physical harm" as that count required.
State v. Valenti, 2013-Ohio-5564, released on December 18, 2013, affirmed a decision of the Summit County Common Pleas Court denying a motion to suppress. Valenti appealed raising the issue of whether she had been unreasonably detained by the police while they were waiting for a drug dog to arrive and walk about her boyfriend's vehicle. The Court of Appeals found that the approximate 19 minute delay was not unreasonable and overruled the assignment of error.
State v. Powell, 2013-Ohio-5561, released on December 18, 2013, affirmed a decision of the Summit County Common Pleas Court denying a motion for judicial release. Powell was sentenced to four years in prison on one charge and one year in prison on a second charge, the two sentences to be served consecutively. Powell also received credit for 256 days of jail time against his sentences. When he filed the motion for judicial release the trial judge denied the motion because he had not filed according to the time limits for filing for judicial release when a defendant is serving a five year prison sentence.
Powell raised two arguments in the appeals court. The first was that his cases should have been considered as two cases, not one case, for purposes of calculating time limits for filing a motion for judicial release. The second was that because he had been given 256 days of jail credit, he was not serving a five year sentence, even if both sentences were considered. For procedural reasons the Court of Appeals rejected both arguments.
State v. McCallister, 2013-Ohio-5559, released on December 18, 2013, affirmed the decision of the Summit County Common Pleas Court denying McCallister's motion to withdrew his plea. McCallister argued that the trial court's omission in its sentencing entry of post-release control meant that his sentence was void. The appellate court found that the trial court had properly imposed post-release control in the sentencing entry. It also pointed out that even if it had not such an error would not void the sentence but would instead lead to the case being remanded for a proper imposition of post-release control.
State v. Jackson, 2013-Ohio-5557, released on December 18, 2013, affirmed in part and reversed in part Jackson's convictions for two counts of murder, 10 counts of felonious assault, one count of firing a gun into a habitation, and one count of carrying a concealed weapon. Several of the counts also contained firearm specifications.
In his first assignment of error Jackson argued that the evidence offered was insufficient to support his convictions for murder, felonious assault, and improper discharge of a firearm into a habitation. The Court of Appeals rejected this assignment of error and found that the evidence was sufficient.
In his second assignment of error Jackson argued that the offenses of murder, felonious assault, and improper discharge of a firearm into a habitation were allied offenses of similar import. The Court of Appeals found that the offense of improper discharge of a weapon into a habitation merged with the felonious assault and murder counts but that the offenses of murder and felonious assault did not merge.
State v. Marbury, 2013-Ohio-5306, released on December 4, 2013, affirmed the denial of Marbury's motion to "correct illegal or void sentence" by the Summit County Common Pleas Court. The appellate court overruled both assignments of error. It found that Marbury could have brought the assignments of error before the Court of Appeals by a direct appeal from his sentence. Since he did not, he could not bring them up after sentencing by a post-sentence motion.
State v. Lerch, 2013 Ohio 5305, was released on December 4, 2013. Unfortunately I could not retrieve the document in order to summarize the decision.
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