State v. Ellison, 2017 Ohio 284

Defendant Vernon Ellison was indicted on two first-degree rape counts (victim S.E., his daughter, under age 10) and 15 pandering-obscenity counts; jury convicted him on the two rape counts and found the victim was under ten.
Before trial the state orally moved to dismiss the 15 pandering counts; the court granted the motion and subsequent journal entries reflected dismissal.
Victim S.E. testified to multiple sexual assaults beginning when she was six or seven (digital penetration) and continuing into adolescence; she later confronted Ellison on a recorded conversation in which he apologized and did not deny the assaults.
Detective testified that Ellison later admitted to sexual intercourse with his daughter but claimed he thought she was older.
Ellison testified and admitted on direct that he had sexual relations with S.E. at age 16 and on cross conceded intercourse occurred more than once but asserted it did not occur while she was a child.
Trial court sentenced Ellison to consecutive life terms without parole; on appeal Ellison raised (1) lack of final disposition of pandering counts, (2) plain error arising from a witness mentioning Ellison had been in prison, and (3) ineffective assistance for eliciting admissions on direct examination.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Ellison)	Held
Final appealability: were the 15 pandering counts unresolved so order nonfinal?	Sentencing entry and earlier journal entry show counts were nolled/dismissed; order is final.	Trial court failed to dispose of counts 3–17, leaving hanging charges and rendering sentence nonfinal.	Court: Dismissal was entered in journal entries; order is final and appealable.
Plain error from witness mentioning defendant "went into prison"	The statement was isolated, not solicited by prosecution; even if error, overwhelming evidence of guilt; no plain error.	The prison remark was improper other-acts evidence; trial court should have granted mistrial or given curative instruction.	Court: Defendant forfeited by not requesting relief; no plain error shown; conviction stands.
Ineffective assistance for counsel eliciting admissions on direct	Counsel’s concession that intercourse occurred was reasonable strategy given Ellison’s pretrial confession; no deficient performance or prejudice.	Counsel erred by eliciting damaging admissions that undermined defense and violated Sixth Amendment.	Court: Performance was within trial strategy; no reasonable probability of different outcome; claim fails.

Smith v. Chen, 142 Ohio St.3d 411 (Ohio 2015) (defines final order under R.C. 2505.02 and relation to Crim.R. 32(C))
State v. Lester, 130 Ohio St.3d 303 (Ohio 2011) (elements required in journal entry for final appealable judgment)
State ex rel. Rose v. McGinty, 128 Ohio St.3d 371 (Ohio 2011) (multiple-count cases need not reiterate counts resolved on the record)
Long v. State, 53 Ohio St.3d 91 (Ohio 1990) (plain-error standard and manifest miscarriage of justice language)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
State v. Breedlove, 26 Ohio St.3d 178 (Ohio 1986) (general rule excluding evidence of other crimes absent statutory/rule-based exception)
State v. Hector, 19 Ohio St.2d 167 (Ohio 1969) (prior offenses are inflammatory and generally inadmissible)
State v. Allen, 29 Ohio St.3d 53 (Ohio 1987) (existence of prior offense ordinarily should not be revealed to jury)
State v. Hill, 92 Ohio St.3d 191 (Ohio 2001) (reversal on plain error only if outcome would clearly have been different)