State v. Morris, 2012 Ohio 6151

Morris Jr. was convicted by a jury of two counts of raping his stepdaughter S.K. and appealed.
This court previously reversed the convictions for improper admission of other-act evidence under Rule 404(B).
The Ohio Supreme Court remanded for review under an abuse-of-discretion standard and limited further consideration if necessary.
Evidence at trial included an adult-sister incident, testimony about Morris’s conduct with towels during sex, and testimony about him kicking the family dog.
S.K. testified Morris sexually molested and raped her over several years, with specific incidents in April 2003 and late 2005; corroboration came from family and a therapist.
The trial court admitted several 404(B) lines of questioning; on appeal, the court found those admissions violated 404(B) and prejudiced Morris.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court abused its discretion admitting 404(B) evidence	Morris argues the Sarah incident and dog-kick evidence were improper 404(B) uses	State contends evidence showed motive/identity/plan within Rule 404(B) exceptions	Yes; court held admissions were an abuse of discretion
Whether the errors were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt	Despite errors, remaining evidence was overwhelming	Evidence was not overwhelmingly corroborated; errors could have influenced the verdict	No; errors were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; reversal affirmed

State v. Curry, 43 Ohio St. 2d 66 (1975) (404(B) admissibility for non-propensity purposes; identity not at issue)
State v. Lowe, 69 Ohio St. 3d 527 (1994) (id and plan/motive considerations for 404(B))
State v. Schaim, 65 Ohio St. 3d 51 (1992) (limits on using other-act evidence to prove identity unless identity is disputed)
State v. Miley, 5th Dist. Nos. 2005-CA-67, 2006-Ohio-4670 (2006) (illustrates admissibility concerns where identity is not at issue in sex cases)