State v. Goza, Unpublished Decision (12-20-2007)

2007 Ohio 6837
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 20, 2007
DocketNo. 89032.
StatusUnpublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2007 Ohio 6837 (State v. Goza, Unpublished Decision (12-20-2007)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Goza, Unpublished Decision (12-20-2007), 2007 Ohio 6837 (Ohio Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION *Page 3
{¶ 1} Appellant, Michael Goza, appeals his convictions for burglary, aggravated burglary, attempted rape, gross sexual imposition, and kidnapping. After a thorough review of the arguments, and for the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

{¶ 2} On June 16, 2006, appellant was indicted on eight counts. Count 1 charged burglary, under R.C. 2911.12; Counts 2 and 3 charged aggravated burglary, under R.C. 2911.11; Count 4 charged attempted rape, under R.C. 2923.02/2907.02; Count 5 charged rape, under R.C. 2907.02; Count 6 charged gross sexual imposition, under R.C. 2907.05; and Counts 7 and 8 charged kidnapping, under R.C. 2905.01. The kidnapping and burglary charges carried repeat violent offender specifications based on a 1997 felonious assault conviction.

{¶ 3} A jury trial began on September 19, 2006, and on September 25, 2006, the jury found appellant guilty of all charges, except rape. Before sentencing, the court merged the charges of aggravated burglary, attempted rape and kidnapping, and gross sexual imposition and kidnapping. The court sentenced appellant to a mandatory six-year term on Count 1, to be served consecutively to a ten-year term on Counts 2 and 3. That ten-year term was to be served consecutively to another ten-year term on Counts 4 and 7, which was to be followed by another consecutive term of five years on Counts 6 and 8. Appellant received a total sentence of 31 years. *Page 4

{¶ 4} The facts that lead to this appeal occurred on March 26, 2006. At 4:00 a.m., nine-year-old C.A.1 awakened her mother and stepfather, Coral and Robert, to inform them that a man had just "tried to rape" her. C.A. told her parents that she woke up without her pants or underwear on. She saw a white man on her bed, beginning to remove his own pants. C.A. kicked him, screamed, and yelled "no." Nevertheless, the suspect continued to lean over her as C.A. fought him. Unsuccessful in raping her, he said, "Fine, I'll get out, but if you tell anyone, I'll hurt you."

{¶ 5} Robert checked the house to make sure the attacker was gone. He found C.A.'s sister, three-year-old K.J., sleeping in the bunk bed the two girls shared. Robert also checked on his stepson, A.A., and went into the unoccupied room of his 15-year-old stepdaughter, T.A. The floor and bed in T.A.'s room were damp, her window screen was partially open, and the window was unlocked. Robert immediately called the police. C.A. and her mother went to the hospital. C.A. told the sexual assault nurse examiner, Nancy Hedberg ("nurse Hedberg"), the same information she had given her parents. *Page 5

{¶ 6} While C.A. was at the hospital, police investigated the scene of the attack. Det. Charles Teel found five fingerprints on the window in T.A.'s room (the suspected point of entry), but found no prints on C.A.'s bed.

{¶ 7} Later that morning, K.J. woke up and told her father, "Daddy, don't do that to me no more. I don't like what you did. You hurt my vagina." Her parents, particularly Robert, were shocked. Coral suspected that K.J. was just confused because Robert matched the suspect's physical description. Coral told K.J. that C.A. was also hurt that night, and that it was not Robert who had hurt them. Robert called the police again. Coral and Robert took K.J. to the hospital. Nurse Kathleen Goellnitz ("nurse Goellnitz") said K.J. told her that a "bad man" had put his fingers in her underwear. K.J. told nurse Goellnitz that her vagina hurt and she had not liked it. K.J. reenacted what had happened. She stated, "I was sleeping in my bed and the bad man hurt me."

{¶ 8} Nurse Goellnitz testified that she did not believe Robert was the attacker because of K.J.'s positive interaction with him, and that she would not have released K.J. to her parents if she felt that the father had harmed her. Nurse Goellnitz testified that K.J. probably thought her father harmed her because he was the only male in the house, and she did not understand that someone else had come into the house.

{¶ 9} On March 27, 2006, Lawrence Petrus ("the social worker"), a member of the Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services Sex Abuse Intake *Page 6 Department, interviewed C.A. and K.J. C.A. told him that she awoke to a man pulling her underwear down. She said after she began crying, the man threatened her to keep quiet. She tried to fight him off, and ultimately he left. K.J. told the social worker that "there was a bad man" in her room. The man had asked her to hold his penis, and he had put his finger against her vagina. The social worker determined that the statements that implicated Robert were untrue because there was no evidence that he abused K.J.

{¶ 10} A few days later, Robert and Coral went to visit T.A. at New Directions, the drug rehabilitation facility where she was living. After hearing what had happened to her sisters, T.A. told her parents that, one night, while sleeping in her bedroom at their house, she awoke to find a man in her room. Robert called the police to advise them of this incident.

{¶ 11} Detective James McPike of the Cleveland Police Department took T.A.'s statement. T.A. told the detective that appellant was the man who entered her room that night. She stated that she and the 33-year-old appellant were friends. Appellant had told T.A. that he was interested in a romantic relationship and began touching her inappropriately. Despite T.A.'s rejection, he continued to pursue her.

{¶ 12} While she was home visiting on March 10, 2006, T.A. awoke at 2:00 a.m. to find appellant in her bed. He told her he had come through her bedroom window on the north side of the house (different from the window C.A. and K.J.'s attacker used over two weeks later). Appellant told her he came by her window in *Page 7 the morning on previous occasions to see if she was awake. He began touching her legs, chest, and stomach. Although he was ordered to leave, appellant began telling T.A. that he loved her and stayed for one-half hour.

{¶ 13} Det. McPike asked the crime lab to compare appellant's fingerprints with the prints found on the point-of-entry window. After learning that the prints matched, he put together a six-man photo array, which consisted of appellant and five similar looking men, and took it to the victims' home. C.A. immediately selected appellant's photo; she also identified appellant as her attacker at trial.

{¶ 14} T.A. told Det. McPike where appellant lived, and the detective obtained a search warrant and an arrest warrant for aggravated burglary and attempted rape. On April 13, 2006, after Det. McPike was unable to serve the warrants because appellant was not home, appellant turned himself in to the police.

{¶ 15} Appellant's fiancee, Sheari Connor, testified that appellant was with her at 4:00 a.m. on March 26, 2006.

{¶ 16} Appellant brings this appeal, asserting six assignments of error for our review.

Insufficient Evidence

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Bluebook (online)
2007 Ohio 6837, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-goza-unpublished-decision-12-20-2007-ohioctapp-2007.