State v. Rodriguez

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 53

Syllabus

JURY INSTRUCTIONS — VERDICT FORMS — PLAIN ERROR — ENDANGERING CHILDREN — DOUBLE JEOPARDY: Where defendant was charged with multiple counts of the same offense against the same victim, the jury demonstrated confusion as to which conduct on the part of defendant applied to each count, and defendant was convicted of some counts and acquitted of others, the trial court committed plain error when it failed to provide the jury with final instructions and/or verdict forms that specified which conduct was the basis of each count. Where it is unclear which acts were included in the jury's verdicts of acquittal, and it is not possible to eliminate the possibility that defendant would be retried for an offense upon which she has already been acquitted, the trial court's judgment convicting defendant of various counts of child endangering must be reversed and defendant discharged. [But see DISSENT: Because Ohio law does not require a trial court to include a defendant's alleged conduct in the jury instructions or in the verdict forms in order to differentiate counts of the indictment, and because the State's closing argument included a count-by-count reiteration of defendant's conduct for the jury, the trial court did not commit plain error in failing to include defendant's alleged conduct in the jury instructions or the verdict forms.]