State v. Lowe

Citations

• 215 N.E.3d 642
• 2023 Ohio 1747

Syllabus

Manifest weight of the evidence ineffective assistance of counsel hearsay. The appellant's convictions were not against the manifest weight of the evidence where testimony established that the two-year-old victim had been violently shaken by an adult and that appellant was the only adult present. The medical experts debunked the claim that the victim's six-year-old brother caused the injuries by putting the child in a box and jumping on it. Further, they debunked that the victim's fall from the top of a bunk bed a week earlier caused the injuries. Whether statements were hearsay will be reviewed under the plain error standard where appellant did not object to them. Accordingly, he must establish he was prejudiced in order to prevail. Here, two of the statements qualified as nonhearsay statements by police officers that explained the next step in the investigation. Appellant failed to establish he was prejudiced by the third statement, because four witnesses had already testified to the information contained therein. Finally, appellant failed to establish that he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his lawyer did not object to the aforementioned statements.