State v. Debord

Citations

• 2023 Ohio 4204

Syllabus

Appellant's convictions for aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, grand theft of a motor vehicle, tampering with evidence, having weapons while under disability, and related firearm specifications were not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Although the trial court improperly allowed the State to impeach one of its own trial witnesses without a showing of affirmative damage as required by Evid.R. 607(A), that error was harmless and did not amount to plain error. Additionally, the trial court did not err by admitting certain photographs of the deceased victim into evidence where the photographs were not needlessly cumulative. Furthermore, appellant failed to establish that his counsel's failure to object/properly object to the aforementioned evidentiary errors at trial denied him his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Appellant's claim that the trial court should have suppressed statements he made during a police interview lacks merit the record establishes that appellant validly waived his Miranda rights and that none of appellant's statements were coerced by the interviewing officers' making false promises of leniency. Appellant's claim that his convictions should be reversed under the cumulative error doctrine also lacks merit. Lastly, appellant's claim that the indefinite sentencing scheme set forth in the Reagan Tokes Law is unconstitutional lacks merit per prior decisions of this court and the Supreme Court of Ohio's recent decision in State v. Hacker, Ohio Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-2535, __ N.E. 3d __. Judgment affirmed.