State v. Anderson

Citations

• 2024 Ohio 843

Syllabus

Gross sexual imposition rape sexual battery soliciting telephone harassment Crim.R. 16 R.C. 2945.12 Crim.R. 43(A) parental-status jury instruction force effective assistance of counsel strategy consecutive sentences disproportionality finding. - The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying defendant's motion to exclude the victim's cell phone records as a sanction for the state's inadvertent violation of Crim.R. 16. The court's determination that the defendant's absence from trial was due to the defendant's own actions was supported by competent and credible evidence and thus, the court did not err in proceeding with trial in the defendant's absence. Defendant's convictions for sexually related offenses were upheld when the evidence demonstrated that the defendant used his parental status to force, compel, and manipulate the victim to engage in sexual activity and conduct. Based on the evidence, the trial court properly provided the parental-force jury instruction. Counsel was not ineffective in their strategic decision to acknowledge defendant's conduct as immoral and disgusting, but focus on the lack of evidence corroborating the elements of the offenses. Case remanded for resentencing on consecutive sentences when the trial court did not engage in a full consecutive-sentence analysis when it failed to make the full disproportionality finding.