State v. Bias

Citations

• 204 N.E.3d 639
• 2022 Ohio 4643

Syllabus

Defendant's convictions for murder, attempted murder, felonious assault, discharging a firearm into a habitation and WUD, along with the attendant specifications, including gang specifications, were supported by sufficient evidence and were not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Trial court did not err in admitting video recordings of victim-witness's statements to police under Evid.R. 804(B)(6) prosecution showed by preponderance of evidence that defendant engaged in wrongdoing that caused victim-witness to be unavailable for trial and that one purpose of the wrongdoing was to make victim-witness unavailable to testify. Trial court did not err in overruling defendant's motion to suppress photo array procedure was not unduly suggestive and victim's identification was reliable. Defendant did not establish that trial court was biased by participating in Crim.R. 16(F) pre-trial in camera certification hearing or conducting handwriting comparison during Evid.R. 804(B)(6) hearing. Trial court's failure to disclose participation in Crim.R. 16(F) certification hearing prior to defendant's reaffirmance of his jury waiver did not invalidate original jury waiver. No plain error in trial court's admission of nonpropensity-based evidence evidence probative to gang specifications. Defendant failed to prove trial counsel was ineffective.