State v. Rance, 2017 Ohio 1446

Defendant William A. Rance was indicted on four counts arising from sexual contact and intercourse with a female who initially told him she was older; the victim was 11–12 at the time of the conduct.
Counts: two counts of gross sexual imposition (third-degree felonies), an amended rape count (first-degree felony), and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material (fifth-degree felony).
Rance was arrested after police found explicit texts and naked photos on his phone; he gave inconsistent statements about the victim’s age.
After 31 pretrials and multiple counsel changes, Rance pleaded guilty to all counts on March 1, 2016; the court conducted a Crim.R. 11 plea colloquy and informed him Count 3 carried a mandatory prison exposure.
Rance later moved to withdraw his guilty plea (claiming it was unintelligent and involuntary) and, alternatively, argued ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to investigate mitigation/exculpatory evidence. The trial court denied the motion and sentenced Rance to seven years imprisonment (concurrent terms).
Rance appealed; the Eighth District affirmed, rejecting both the plea-withdrawal claim and the ineffective-assistance claim.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying the presentence motion to withdraw the guilty plea	State: trial court properly exercised discretion after full Crim.R. 11 colloquy and hearing	Rance: plea was unintelligent, involuntary, coerced, counsel pressured him and failed to explain mandatory prison exposure	Denied — no abuse of discretion; Crim.R. 11 colloquy, counsel representation, and hearing support denial
Whether defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to consider mitigating or exculpatory evidence before advising pleas	State: counsel’s performance was not shown to be deficient; Rance admitted satisfaction with counsel at plea	Rance: counsel failed to investigate/consider mitigation or exculpatory evidence and pressured plea	Denied — no deficient performance shown and no prejudice demonstrated; plea was knowing and voluntary

State v. Xie, 62 Ohio St.3d 521 (Ohio 1992) (standard for presentence plea-withdrawal motions and abuse-of-discretion review)
State v. Ketterer, 126 Ohio St.3d 448 (Ohio 2010) (motions to withdraw pleas before sentencing are to be freely and liberally allowed but not absolute)
State v. Peterseim, 68 Ohio App.2d 211 (8th Dist. 1979) (four-factor test for denying a presentence motion to withdraw plea)
State v. Smith, 89 Ohio St.3d 323 (Ohio 2000) (two-prong Strickland framework adopted for ineffective-assistance claims)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (establishes deficiency and prejudice standards for ineffective assistance)
State v. Bradley, 42 Ohio St.3d 136 (Ohio 1989) (objective-reasonableness standard for counsel performance)
State v. White, 82 Ohio St.3d 16 (Ohio 1998) (reasonable-probability requirement for prejudice under Strickland)