State v. Rhymer

Citations

• 2021 Ohio 2908

Syllabus

SELF-DEFENSE – JURY INSTRUCTIONS – VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER – COUNSEL – EVIDENCE – MANIFEST WEIGHT: Where defendant was charged with murder, the trial court did not err in instructing the jury that defendant must have used reasonable force in order to prevail on his self-defense claim. The trial court did not err in instructing the jury on the lesser-degree offense of voluntary manslaughter where there was sufficient evidence presented for the jury to conclude that defendant killed the victim while under a sudden passion or in a fit of rage brought on by the victim's provocation, and the provocation was reasonably sufficient to incite defendant into using deadly force. Defendant failed to demonstrate that he received ineffective assistance of counsel where counsel's failure to object to a self-defense jury instruction or request a Castle-Doctrine instruction did not amount to deficient performance and counsel's failure to object to the voluntary-manslaughter jury instruction was trial strategy. Defendant's conviction for voluntary manslaughter was not against the manifest weight of the evidence where his self-defense claim was undercut by eyewitness testimony and inconsistencies between his testimony and his statements to police.