State v. Pulley

Citations

• 2023 Ohio 3277

Syllabus

The trial court did not err in refusing to provide funds for a false confession expert. The trial court also did not err in overruling appellant's motion to suppress appellant knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily spoke with police, and there was no evidence of coercion. The trial court thoroughly explained the dangers associated with appellant's waiver of assistance of counsel and held many status hearings to discuss appellant's situation. Moreover, appellant abandoned his request for self-representation by asking standby counsel to assume representation after opening statements were made. The trial court did not commit error in refusing to admit text messages between appellant and the victim's mother appellant knew of these texts when they occurred but failed to mention them until the State had nearly finished its case. Further, trial counsel did not act ineffectively by failing to subpoena the victim's mother or others to authenticate the text messages. Appellant's argument that the trial court erred in its jury instructions defining \acting recklessly\ lacks merit although the court used an outdated instruction reflecting the law before amendment, the prior law actually imposed a higher burden on the prosecution, and therefore the instruction did not prejudice appellant. The trial court also did not err in refusing to merge two offenses as allied offenses of similar import. The offenses were not allied, as they were committed during separate events and the harm caused was separate and identifiable. Appellant's convictions were supported by sufficient evidence and were not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Finally, because no error occurred, there is no basis for finding cumulative error. Judgment affirmed.