State v. Greenway

Citations

• 2017 Ohio 7729

Syllabus

EVIDENCE - WITNESSES - DRUGS - ALLOCUTION - SENTENCING: In defendant's trial for possessing drug-abuse instruments, the trial court's questioning of the police officer, who responded to the dispatch of an overdose, about the life squad's use of Narcan on defendant did not establish an essential element of the state's case and was not an abuse of discretion. The record did not demonstrate that the trial judge was biased where nothing in the record showed that the trial judge exhibited favoritism toward the state and against the defendant or that the judge did not have an open mind. The failure to submit a properly notarized affidavit into evidence along with the crime laboratory report was harmless error. Evidence showing that the police officer dispatched to the scene for a \non-breather\ found the defendant in a basement receiving life-saving procedures with a syringe containing drug residue at the foot of the bed on which defendant was lying was sufficient to support defendant's conviction for possessing drug-abuse instruments. The trial court erred in denying defendant her right of allocution where it failed to address defendant personally and ask her if she wished to make a statement on her own behalf or present any evidence in mitigation, and therefore, defendant's sentence must be reversed and the cause remanded for resentencing.