State v. August, 2019 Ohio 4126

Victim met Lency August online; they lived together and shared the victim's minivan.
On Feb. 22, 2017, during a drive after an argument, August struck the victim, seized the steering wheel, drove into a shopping-center service area, and ordered the victim to perform oral sex; she complied from fear.
After returning to the victim's home, August threatened her and her children with a knife, barricaded the bedroom door, and forced additional sexual acts; he left the next morning by taxi.
The victim reported the offenses hours after August left; a medical exam and rape kit were obtained.
A grand jury indicted August on three counts of rape and two kidnapping counts with sexual-motivation specifications; a jury convicted only for the rape that occurred in the vehicle.
Posttrial, August was sentenced to a mandatory 10-year term and designated a Tier III sex offender; he appeals raising preindictment delay, evidentiary, mistrial, and sufficiency/manifest-weight claims.

Issue	State's Argument	August's Argument	Held
Preindictment delay — motion to dismiss	Delay did not cause actual, particularized prejudice; statute of limitations protects against stale charges	Delay of over a year, death of taxi driver witness, and missing surveillance video caused actual prejudice	Denied; appellant failed to show specific, non-speculative prejudice
Admission of victim's statement recounting August's claim of past crimes (medical record)	Statement was a verbal act admitted to show the threat and context, not to prove truth	Statement was hearsay and impermissible character evidence under Evid.R. 404(B) and unfairly prejudicial	Admitted; treated as non-hearsay verbal act relevant to threats and not offered to prove past crimes
Mistrial for jurors seeing August in handcuffs on monitor	Brief inadvertent viewing did not taint jury; trial court’s individual juror inquiries adequate	Jurors saw defendant shackled via closed-circuit monitor; prejudicial and demanded mistrial	Denied; observation was brief, jurors said it did not affect verdict, no demonstrated bias
Sufficiency / manifest weight — force to compel sex in vehicle	Evidence (victim testimony, injuries, photos, DNA, nurse and detective testimony) established force/threat to compel sexual act	Sexual activity was consensual; state failed to prove compelled submission by force or threat	Affirmed; ample evidence of force/threat and jury did not lose its way; conviction supported

State v. Luck, 15 Ohio St.3d 150 (1984) (preindictment delay violates due process when it causes actual prejudice)
United States v. Lovasco, 431 U.S. 783 (1977) (statute of limitations is primary protection against stale charges)
State v. Jones, 148 Ohio St.3d 167 (2016) (burden-shifting framework and definition of actual prejudice for preindictment delay)
State v. Walls, 96 Ohio St.3d 437 (2002) (evaluate evidence as it existed when indictment filed to determine prejudice)
State v. Adams, 144 Ohio St.3d 429 (2015) (no presumption of prejudice from passage of time alone)
State v. Beasley, 153 Ohio St.3d 497 (2018) (out-of-court statements not hearsay when offered to show verbal act, not truth)
State v. Kirkland, 140 Ohio St.3d 73 (2014) (Evid.R. 404(B) three-part analysis for other-acts evidence)
State v. Tench, 156 Ohio St.3d 85 (2018) (probative vs. prejudicial balancing under Evid.R. 403 for other-acts evidence)
Deck v. Missouri, 544 U.S. 622 (2005) (visible shackling undermines presumption of innocence and fairness of trial)