State v. Johnson-Coleman

Citations

• 2026 Ohio 1044

Syllabus

Motion for mistrial; Sixth Amendment right to public trial; no closure by court; officer's testimony; personal knowledge; not hearsay; no violation of Sixth Amendment right; Confrontation Clause; conceded error; theft is a lesser included offense of robbery. Appellant appeals ruling during trial and his sentencing. Appellant's first assignment of error alleges the court erred by denying his motion for a mistrial when his family was allegedly accidentally informed by a court employee trial that day had been canceled when it was not. Because there was no action by the court and the trial was not actually closed and still open to the public there is nothing for us to review and thereby no violation of his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. Appellant's second assignment of error alleges the trial court erred permitting testimony from the investigating officer regarding appellant's out-of-state arrest and extradition to Cuyahoga County arguing the officer did not have personal knowledge of this information, the information was hearsay, and it violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront an out-of-court witness. We find the officer did testify to his personal knowledge and that there were not out-of-court statements made during his testimony such that there was no hearsay and thereby no confrontation clause concerns. Appellant's third assignment of error alleges the trial court erred by sentencing him to both counts of theft and aggravated robbery, since the theft is lesser included offenses and they should have merged for sentencing. The State concedes assignment of error three. As such we overrule appellant's first two assignments of error and sustain his third assignment and vacate the trial court's sentence and remand the matter for resentencing.