State v. Kelly

Citations

• 2024 Ohio 1612

Syllabus

Appellant was convicted after a bench trial of gross sexual imposition and public indecency based on conduct that occurred in 2018 with a four-year-old child. He was separately convicted after a jury trial of three counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, and six counts of gross sexual imposition stemming from his conduct with two sisters between 1987 and 1993. At the bench trial, the trial court did not err in denying appellant's Crim.R. 29(A) motion regarding gross sexual imposition. The trial court did not err in declaring the then seven-year-old victim unavailable to testify at trial pursuant to Evid.R. 807. The trial court did not err in allowing two witnesses to review police reports, which they did not prepare, to refresh their recollections. Even if the trial court should have granted appellant's motion in limine regarding prior bad acts, the trial court did not err in allowing the State to play a disputed portion of appellant's police interview during the bench trial, because the court indicated that it would disregard the evidence if it determined, upon hearing all the evidence, that the evidence should have been excluded. Trial counsel did not render ineffective assistance when he withdrew a motion to suppress appellant's statements to the police. With respect to the counts concerning the two sisters, the trial court properly denied the motion to dismiss the charges concerning the younger sister. However, the rape charges concerning the older sister were brought outside of the statute of limitations. The trial court did not err in denying appellant's motion in limine seeking to use statements and information from the sisters' medical records for cross-examination. Judgment affirmed in part and vacated in part.