State v. Stokes

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 2246

Syllabus

ASSAULT – SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE – MANIFEST WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE – SELF-DEFENSE: In an assault case where defendant tenant slammed her apartment door on the landlord victim causing injury, the trial court's guilty verdict was supported by sufficient evidence of defendant's identity as the offender and knowledge that she committed the act charged, because she admitted such by way of her self-defense claim, and evidence showed that she was the individual living in the apartment unit and that she slammed the door shut. The trial court's decision that the State disproved defendant's self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt was not against the manifest weight of the evidence, because evidence showed that defendant knew it was the victim entering her apartment and that she purposefully slammed the door shut on him. The trial court did not apply the incorrect burden of proof as to defendant's self-defense claim, even though it did not explicitly state the standard and which element it believed the State disproved.