State v. Pichardo-Reyes, 2017 Ohio 8534

Background

Juan Pichardo-Reyes and Carmen Lopez lived together with three young children; an incident occurred after Reyes returned intoxicated late and found the apartment door barricaded.
Reyes located Lopez, dragged her by the hair, a physical struggle ensued involving a broken broom handle, biting, scratching, punching, and a knife (allegedly ~12 inches) pushed against a bedroom door; Lopez and a child disarmed Reyes; neighbor and police responded.
Lopez sustained visible bite marks, scratches, and bruises; photographs and testimony from Lopez, a neighbor, the couple’s son, and responding officers were admitted; Reyes testified and denied assaulting Lopez, claiming Lopez threatened him with a knife.
Reyes was convicted by a jury of felonious assault (R.C. 2903.11(A)(2)) and domestic violence (R.C. 2919.25(A)); sentenced to concurrent prison terms; he appealed.
On appeal Reyes raised sufficiency/manifest-weight, prosecutorial misconduct (questions about post-arrest silence), request for mistrial after testimony about prior injuries, ineffective assistance of counsel, allied-offense merger, and cumulative error.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency / manifest weight of evidence for felonious assault and domestic violence	State: witness testimony, son and neighbor corroboration, photos show injuries; knife and broom were recovered	Reyes: challenged credibility; claimed Lopez was aggressor and he was threatened	Court: affirmed convictions; evidence sufficient and verdicts not against manifest weight
Prosecutorial misconduct for impeaching Reyes with his silence	State: used prior inconsistent statements to impeach Reyes’s trial testimony about statements to police	Reyes: prosecutor improperly used post-Miranda silence to impeach	Court: no misconduct — impeachment was proper because Reyes made prior inconsistent statements and issue involved pre-Miranda statements in Spanish
Motion for mistrial after Lopez mentioned some photos showed prior injuries	State: photos were not shown; brief testimony referenced prior injuries	Reyes: comment prejudiced jury and required mistrial	Court: denied mistrial; trial court gave curative instruction and jury never saw the photos
Ineffective assistance of counsel (failed objections; no self-defense instruction)	Reyes: counsel should have objected to impeachment and requested self-defense instruction	State: objections would have failed; record did not support self-defense elements	Court: counsel not ineffective — no meritorious objections and self-defense instruction unsupported by evidence
Allied-offense merger (felonious assault vs. domestic violence)	Reyes: multiple convictions punished same conduct	State: knife attempt and separate physical acts caused separate harms	Court: convictions not allied — separate conduct and separate harms (attempted stabbing v. physical assault)
Cumulative error	Reyes: multiple errors collectively denied a fair trial	State: individual issues lacked merit	Court: no cumulative error because no reversible errors found

Key Cases Cited

State v. Thompkins, 78 Ohio St.3d 380 (discussing sufficiency and manifest-weight standards)
State v. Jenks, 61 Ohio St.3d 259 (standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610 (prohibition on using post-Miranda silence in prosecution’s case-in-chief)
Fletcher v. Weir, 455 U.S. 603 (permitting use of pre-Miranda silence for impeachment when defendant testifies)
State v. Combs, 62 Ohio St.3d 278 (Miranda-related protections and limits on use of silence)
State v. Ruff, 143 Ohio St.3d 114 (framework for allied-offense analysis under R.C. 2941.25)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)