State v. Parker

Citations

• 2019 Ohio 830

Syllabus

A defendant appeals his convictions for aggravated arson and felony murder, which arose from a scheme with a co-defendant to set an arson fire at the defendant's home for insurance money. A firefighter died while responding to the fire. The defendant failed to establish that his joint trial with his co-defendant was manifestly prejudicial. Sufficient circumstantial evidence established that the defendants conspired to commit aggravated arson. The court did not plainly err in failing to instruct the jury on lesser included offenses where the proposed offenses were not lesser included offense of the charged offenses and the facts at trial would not have supported a lesser included offense instruction. The defendant was not deprived of a fair trial based on alleged instances of misconduct by the prosecutor throughout the trial.