State v. Few, 2012 Ohio 5407

Few was convicted of multiple traffic offenses arising from a November 2011 accident involving a Volvo owned by his brother Kevin.
Two neighbors, Banks and Miller, identified Few as the driver at trial despite defense alibi efforts.
Few argued trial counsel was ineffective, alleging failure to file a timely alibi notice, failure to subpoena officers, failure to enforce witness separation, and improper handling of a Field Investigation Card (FIC) testimony.
The trial court sentenced Few to jail time suspended on probation, with conditions including an alcohol/drug evaluation and community service.
Few appealed asserting ineffective assistance of trial counsel; the court of appeals analyzed whether counsel’s conduct fell below an objective standard and affected the trial outcome.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Ineffective assistance standard applied	State argues Strickland standard applied; errors must be deficient and prejudicial.	Few contends several strategic deficiencies harmed outcome.	Strickland applied; no deficient performance shown.
Timeliness and sufficiency of alibi notice	Notice was untimely and insufficient under Crim.R. 12.1.	Counsel may not have been aware of alibi details; notice not adequately addressed.	Record fails to show timely notice or counsel awareness; deficiency not proven.
Failure to subpoena officers who interviewed Few	Officers’ testimony could have supported alibi or injury observations.	Subpoenaing officers would be speculative without knowing their testimony.	Record lacks anticipated testimony; no reasonable probability of different outcome.
Witness separation and exclusion of a witness	Unidentified witness remained in courtroom, potentially testimony-obstructing.	Defense failed to object; unidentified witness could not testify.	Even if counsel erred, no reasonable probability of different result shown.
Objection/cross-examination regarding Field Investigation Card (FIC)	Officers testified FIC suggested Ryan drove the vehicle; objection would affect outcome.	FIC testimony was tangential and not probative of who drove at the time.	No reasonable probability of different outcome; eyewitness identifications supportive.

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. Supreme Court 1984) (establishes standard for ineffective assistance of counsel)
State v. Nabors, 2012-Ohio-4757 (2d Dist. Montgomery 2012) (deference to trial strategy; hindsight not allowed)
State v. Mitchell, 2008-Ohio-493 (2d Dist. Montgomery 2008) (defer to trial strategy; not all decisions undermine performance)
State v. Carter, 651 N.E.2d 965 (Ohio 1995) (trial counsel's decisions judged on reasonable professional judgment)