State v. Mounts

Citations

• 2026 Ohio 1443

Syllabus

APP.R. 26(B) — INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF APPELLATE COUNSEL — INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF TRIAL COUNSEL — REOPENED APPEAL — EXPERT TESTIMONY — PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT: In defendant's jury trial for murder that hinged on expert medical testimony regarding the timing of the infant's skull fracture, his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance (1) by acquiescing to the State's objection limiting the scope of a defense expert's testimony and abandoning the expert's clarification that she had reviewed the original histology slide prepared by the autopsy physician and it had not changed her opinion that the fracture predated the period in which the child was in defendant's care; (2) by failing to object to the testimony of a State's expert who had not provided the written report required by Crim.R. 16(K), allowing undisclosed expert opinions to be heard by the jury, including the assertion that the victim's injuries were the result of intentional child abuse rather than accidental trauma or another unidentified etiology; and (3) by failing to object when the prosecutor asserted, during closing argument, that the State could have called eight additional medical experts who purportedly would have testified that the injuries were recent and caused by child abuse. Because defendant's appellate counsel in his original appeal provided ineffective assistance by failing to raise on appeal the meritorious issue of defense counsel's effectiveness at trial, we vacate our prior judgment in this appeal. See App.R. 26(B)(9).