State v. Berry

Citations

• 2018 Ohio 4855

Syllabus

Statute of limitations preindictment delay rape 20-year statute of limitations ineffective assistance of counsel prejudice R.C. 2901.13 reasonable diligence. Judgment is vacated, and the matter is remanded so counsel can file a motion to dismiss the indictment. The state's attempts to locate defendant lacked the requisite \reasonable diligence\ to commence the prosecution within the 20 year limitations period when the defendant was first arrested in 1995 for the offense, but the victim chose not to pursue the case and then the defendant was indicted one week prior to the 20 years after the investigator reopened the case based on a CODIS hit (on another male) from the victim's rape kit. The summons was returned via FedEx for a \bad address\ and the case was stagnant for nearly two years until the defendant was arrested. Consequently, nearly 22 years passed since the incident in January 1995. During the state's investigation in 2014, the investigator was aware that the defendant was making child support payments, but he did not seek out defendant's contact information through the county agency.