State v. A.W.

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 4554

Syllabus

On defendant's appeal of bench verdict of guilty and total aggregate sentence of fifteen years to lifetime incarceration for three counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition. Defendant's three assignments of error assert improper admission of hearsay evidence and evidence in violation of the Confrontation Clause, as well as the trial court's alleged failure to safeguard defendant's rights to due process in a bench trial. Reviewing courts presume that the court considered only relevant and competent evidence when a case is tried to the bench, and it is the defendant's burden on appeal to affirmatively show otherwise and to establish prejudice. Here, the defendant has not pointed to any specific inadmissible or unfairly prejudicial statements in the record, and even assuming that some evidence was inadmissible, the record does not contain any indication that the trial court relied upon that evidence in determining its verdict. For this reason, all three of defendant's assignments of error are overruled and the trial court's judgment is affirmed.