State v. Truesdell

Citations

• 257 N.E.3d 1131
• 2024 Ohio 5376

Syllabus

GROSS SEXUAL IMPOSITION - EVIDENCE - RELEVANCE - GROOMING - PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT - APPELLATE REVIEW/CRIMINAL - HEARSAY - EVID.R. 803(4) - STATEMENTS FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT - INDICTMENT - JURY INSTRUCTIONS - CONSECUTIVE SENTENCES: The trial court did not err in admitting evidence that defendant had showed a child victim pornography depicting naked women because that evidence was relevant to show that he was grooming the child victim and normalizing sexual behavior to her. Defendant did not show that any prosecutorial misconduct rose to the level of plain error where that alleged misconduct was made in response to defense counsel's statements, the trial court gave proper limiting instructions, and the prosecutor's statements were fair comments on the evidence and did not denigrate defense counsel. Where defendant argued that the prosecutor asked leading questions of all the State's witnesses, listed 12 pages of the transcript where he alleged that the prosecutor asked leading questions, and did not specify which of the questions were improper, the appellate court will not address that argument because defendant bore the burden to show error by reference to the record, and it was not the court's duty to root out the alleged improper questions. The trial court did not err in admitting into evidence testimony about statements made by the victim in a forensic interview about the sexual abuse and identifying defendant as the perpetrator because those statements fell within the hearsay exception for statements made for medical diagnosis and treatment set forth in Evid.R. 803(4) where the interviewer testified that she had no other agenda than helping the victim feel safe and to obtain appropriate treatment for the victim. There was sufficient evidence to support defendant's convictions for gross sexual imposition and defendant's convictions were not against the manifest weight of the evidence where the victim presented a detailed, coherent narrative of the