State v. Singh

Citations

• 2022 Ohio 3385

Syllabus

Appellant's convictions for rape, kidnapping, and assault were supported by sufficient evidence and were not against the manifest weight of the evidence where the state demonstrated appellant struck the victim in the face and head, forced her into an abandoned building, and vaginally raped her. As appellant's crying statements at the end of a recorded police interview were exculpatory hearsay statements not admissible under Evid.R. 801(D)(2), the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit the full recording at trial. The trial court did not err in not merging appellant's convictions for rape and kidnaping as appellant's movement of the victim from one neighborhood to another and his secretive concealment of the victim in an abandoned building had significance apart from the rape. Given the nature of appellant's conduct as well as the totality of the harm inflicted upon the victim, the trial court's decision to run appellant's 4-year prison sentence for kidnapping consecutively to the 8-to-12-year indefinite sentence for the rape was supported by the record. Appellant forfeited his constitutional challenge to the indefinite sentence imposed by the trial court under the Reagan Tokes Law by not first raising the issue with the trial court.