State v. Hake

Citations

• 2026 Ohio 2308

Syllabus

The trial court's judgments in these two consolidated misdemeanor appeals were rendered without the benefit of a transcript of the proceedings before a magistrate. Although appellant has filed a transcript on appeal, an appellate court may not consider materials that were not before the trial court at the time of its ruling. Without an admissible transcript, this court must presume regularity unless the limited record affirmatively demonstrates error. The lack of a transcript largely prevents appellant from establishing error related to (1) the denial of requests for a continuance, (2) waiver of his right to counsel, (3) reservation of a ruling on a Crim.R. 29 motion, (4) the legal sufficiency and manifest weight of the evidence, (5) the admission of purported hearsay testimony about an unauthenticated document, and (6) a prosecution witness remaining in the courtroom despite a separation-of-witnesses order. To the extent that some of these issues are capable of being reviewed without a transcript, appellant has not shown reversible error. Finally, the record does reflect that the trial court violated Crim.R. 43 by sentencing appellant in his absence. Judgments affirmed in part, reversed in part, and cases remanded for resentencing.