State v. Jones

Citations

• 2018 Ohio 1130

Syllabus

AGGRAVATED ROBBERY - WEAPONS - FIREARM - EVIDENCE - WITNESSES - PROSECUTOR - COUNSEL - HEARSAY: Where a witness was cooperative until days before trial, the state was not required to follow the procedures set forth in R.C. 2939.26 before the trial court could find that the state had used reasonable efforts to secure the witness's appearance and declare the witness unavailable. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found that the state had used reasonable efforts to secure a witness's appearance before declaring that witness unavailable where officers had tried to contact the witness through different phone numbers, social media, and her mother, and the witness no longer lived at her last known address. Although using analogies to attempt to explain reasonable doubt is discouraged, the prosecutor's comparison of reasonable doubt to putting together a jigsaw puzzle did not prejudice defendant where the trial court properly instructed the jury on reasonable doubt. Defendant was not prejudiced by trial counsel's failure to offer to stipulate to his prior conviction, which constituted an element of the charge of having a weapon while under a disability, where the failure to offer to stipulate did not change the outcome of the trial. Testimony of a police officer about speaking to third parties did not violate the prohibition in State v. Ricks, 136 Ohio St.3d 256, 2013-Ohio-3712, 995 N.E.2d 1181, where the officer never testified to what the third parties actually told him. The evidence presented by the state, including that defendant had pointed a firearm at the cashier and demanded money, implying that he would shoot the cashier if the cashier failed to comply with his demand, was sufficient to show that the firearm was operable. For purposes of defendant's aggravated-robbery conviction, the cashier of the store defendant robbed was the \owner\ of the money in the cash register and the store's inventory.