State v. Arnold

2018 Ohio 3394
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided August 24, 2018·No. 27677·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT MONTGOMERY COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO :

:

Plaintiff-Appellee : Appellate Case No. 27677 :

v. : Trial Court Case No. 2017-CR-651 :

DARION ARNOLD : (Criminal Appeal from : Common Pleas Court)

Defendant-Appellant :

:

...........

OPINION

Rendered on the 24th day of August, 2018.

...........

MATHIAS H. HECK, JR., by MICHAEL J. SCARPELLI, Atty. Reg. No. 0093662, Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, Appellate Division, Montgomery County Courts Building, 301 West Third Street, 5th Floor, Dayton, Ohio 45402 Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellee

MARSHALL G. LACHMAN, Atty. Reg. No. 0076791, 75 N. Pioneer Boulevard, Springboro, Ohio 45066 Attorney for Defendant-Appellant

.............

FROELICH, J.

{¶ 1} Darion Arnold was found guilty after a jury trial on one count each of rape, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, gross sexual imposition, and sexual imposition. After merging the offenses, the trial court sentenced Arnold to 10 years in prison for rape. Arnold appeals from his conviction. The judgment of the trial court will be affirmed. Factual Background and Procedural History

{¶ 2} Arnold is the first cousin of C.H., a female who has been diagnosed with developmental delays and related disorders that impede her cognitive functioning. From the age of six months, C.H. was raised by her maternal aunt, P.R. (“Mother”),1 who also is Arnold’s mother. C.H. and Arnold regard one another as siblings.

{¶ 3} On March 4, 2017, when C.H. was 13 years old and Arnold was 24, C.H., Arnold, Mother and Mother’s seven-year-old daughter all lived together in the same house. That morning, Mother asked C.H. to go from the second floor to the basement to check on the laundry. Shortly after, Mother saw Arnold follow C.H. down the stairs.

{¶ 4} C.H. was gone longer than Mother expected, causing Mother to call down to ask C.H. what she was doing. When C.H. came upstairs soon after, Mother thought C.H. “smell[ed] funny” and noticed something on the back of C.H.’s jeans. After swiping the substance with her finger, Mother recognized it as semen. Pressed for an explanation, C.H. told Mother that Arnold “was doing sex.” Mother directed C.H. to remove her jeans and change clothes while Mother placed the jeans in a plastic bag.

{¶ 5} Mother then took C.H. and Mother’s younger daughter with her on a pre-

1 P.R. testified that she views C.H. as “my daughter.” (Tr. at 212.) Although P.R. has not adopted C.H., C.H. believes P.R. to be her mother and does not know otherwise. (Tr. at 213.)

planned errand before heading to the home of Mother’s older daughter. From there, Mother called the Dayton police department, which instructed her to transport C.H. to Dayton Children’s Hospital. After waiting for her older daughter’s boyfriend to return from work with her daughter’s vehicle, Mother used that vehicle to drive C.H. to Dayton Children’s Hospital on the evening of March 4.

{¶ 6} At the hospital, a nurse and a police officer took C.H.’s jeans from the plastic bag that Mother had used and placed them into a paper bag. Brittanie Daugherty, a registered nurse who works in the emergency room at the hospital, testified that she was on duty when C.H. came to the hospital “for a possible sexual assault by her brother.” Daugherty’s shift began at 7:30 p.m. that day, and she testified that she saw C.H. later that evening. In relating her history for purposes of treatment, C.H. told Daugherty that her brother “did sex with her.” Asked what that meant, C.H. reported that her brother had “put his penis in her butt” until “he ejaculated on her butt.” Daugherty posed additional questions to determine whether her brother’s penis actually had entered C.H.’s anus, and C.H. confirmed that Arnold’s penis had gone “[i]nside of her body.”

{¶ 7} On physical examination of C.H.’s perineal area, Daugherty detected a dried substance inconsistent with “normal vaginal secretions,” that to her appeared to be dried semen. She did not see any evidence of anal injury or bleeding, but explained that assaults on pediatric patients are “typically not * * * violent,” and bleeding from anal penetration may not be visible hours later. Daugherty identified C.H.’s pants that she and a police officer had placed into a paper bag at the hospital. She also identified the sexual assault examination kit that contained the swabs she used to collect samples from C.H.’s body for testing.

{¶ 8} Questioned about the events of March 4, C.H. testified that after she checked on the laundry at home, she went up to the first floor and stopped at the kitchen sink, trying to decide whether to wash the dishes. Arnold came up behind her at the sink, pulled down C.H.’s pants and underwear as well as his own, and “put his private in my butt” while they both stood in front of the sink. She confirmed that by “private,” she meant Arnold’s penis. Asked on cross-examination whether Arnold “actually put [his penis] in the hole where the poop comes out,” she indicated that he did.

{¶ 9} C.H. said Arnold’s actions “hurt” and made her feel “sad,” but she did not say anything to Arnold because she was afraid that “he would say shut up or something” if she told him that it hurt. She thought Arnold also would tell her “to shut up or something” if she called for help. Arnold was “blocking” her against the sink and did not stop what he was doing until C.H. heard a noise from the stairs. Arnold then said “don’t tell mom.”

{¶ 10} At that point, C.H. felt wet “[i]n my butt,” and Arnold grabbed a paper towel, wiped her butt, and threw the paper towel into the kitchen trash can. C.H. pulled up her pants and continued upstairs, but at first was hesitant to tell Mother what happened because she was afraid that she would be in trouble.

{¶ 11} Officer Stephen Cline, an evidence technician with the Dayton police, testified that he collected C.H.’s sexual assault examination kit and the bag containing her pants from Dayton Children’s Hospital. He then proceeded to C.H.’s home, where he took photographs and collected evidence that a detective had discovered at the scene. Among that evidence were several paper towels found in the kitchen trash can, including “one that had what appeared to be blood on it.” He identified the various evidentiary items he had collected.

{¶ 12} Mary Cicco, a forensic scientist with the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab, testified as an expert witness in serology and DNA analysis. Cicco identified the evidence collected from C.H.’s body, pants, and home that she had analyzed. Testing only for the presence of semen, she detected no semen on any of the oral, vaginal, anal, or external swabs contained in C.H.’s sexual assault examination kit. Cicco testified that the absence of semen did not mean that penetration had not occurred, however. For example, “an individual may have penetrated and then pulled out and did not leave any ejaculate behind,” or “there’s been such an extended time frame that you don’t have anything that’s left.”

{¶ 13} A substance that Cicco found on the back of the right leg of C.H.’s pants, however, tested positive for semen. Cicco performed DNA analysis on that semen to obtain a genetic profile, then compared the semen’s genetic profile to that of a DNA sample known to have come from Arnold. That comparison confirmed that Arnold was the source of the semen on C.H.’s pants. Additionally, one of the paper towels taken from the trash can in C.H.’s home tested positive for the presence of blood, but no DNA testing was conducted on that specimen. Cicco could not say how long either the semen or the blood found had been present.

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