State v. Williams

Citations

• 2024 Ohio 5076

Syllabus

PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT – IMPROPER VOUCHING – PLAIN ERROR – MANIFEST WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE: The prosecutor improperly vouched for the credibility of the State's witnesses during closing argument by commenting that the witnesses were truthful, but defendant was limited to a plain-error review where no objection was raised to the comments, and the error was not reversible where defendant failed to establish a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different but for the prosecutor's comments. Where both the victim and an independent witness testified that defendant ordered his dog to attack the victim, and the victim testified that defendant hit her, defendant's conviction for felonious assault was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.