State v. Wolfe

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 866

Syllabus

After appellant stole a car with a child inside, he was convicted of kidnapping, grand theft (auto), and petty theft. The trial court correctly found that it, and not the jury, was required to determine the repeat violent offender specification. Appellant's convictions for kidnapping and grand theft were not subject to merger. Plain error is not demonstrated in the trial court's denial of separate trials for appellant's offenses. There was no evidence that the State had failed to preserve materially exculpatory evidence allegedly contained in a body camera video and, in any event, the failure to admit such evidence would have been harmless error. Appellant's right to confrontation was not violated by the court's admission of the child-victim's excited utterance or by the fact that the child did not testify at trial. Appellant was not denied due process or the right to cross-examine a witness who identified him by means of a photo array by the fact that she did not testify at a suppression hearing; the identification procedure was not unduly suggestive, and the witness was not required to testify. The trial court correctly instructed the jury that direct and circumstantial evidence are of equal weight. The trial court did not err in overruling appellant's motion to suppress surveillance video footage from a nearby business; appellant's challenge was not based upon Fourth Amendment principles but on the video's authenticity, which went to the weight of the evidence, not its admissibility. Appellant was not denied compulsory process because a witness he subpoenaed for a suppression hearing was not properly served, and he had no right to subpoena a witness to a pretrial conference. Because appellant did not raise the issue of the witnesses' failure to appear at trial, the issue was waived. Appellant's convictions were supported by sufficient evidence. Appellant's right to a speedy trial was not violated. The Reagan Tokes Act, under which appellant was sentenced, is not