State v. Sanders

2021 Ohio 2431
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided July 16, 2021·No. 2019-CA-86·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

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

STATE OF OHIO :

:

Plaintiff-Appellee : Appellate Case No. 2019-CA-86 :

v. : Trial Court Case No. 2019-CR-507 :

OLIVER SANDERS, III : (Criminal Appeal from : Common Pleas Court)

Defendant-Appellant :

:

...........

OPINION

Rendered on the 16th day of July, 2021.

...........

IAN A. RICHARDSON, Atty. Reg. No. 0100124, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Clark County Prosecutor’s Office, Appellate Division, 50 East Columbia Street, Suite 449, Springfield, Ohio 45502 Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellee

GLENDA A. SMITH, Atty. Reg. No. 0070738, P.O. Box 15353, Wyoming, Ohio 45215 Attorney for Defendant-Appellant

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

HALL, J.

{¶ 1} Pornographic images and videos of minors were found stored on Oliver Sanders’s cellphone. He was convicted of a total of 49 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor, pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. He appeals, and we affirm the convictions.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

{¶ 2} In March 2019, nine-year-old R.H. 1 told her mother that she had been sexually abused by Sanders, a relative. The police were contacted, and an investigation began. R.H. was interviewed by Ann Mann, a forensic interviewer at the Clark County Child Advocacy Center. R.H.’s older sister, thirteen-year-old K.H., was also interviewed. K.H. said that Sanders had sexually abused her too and showed her images of child pornography on his cellphone. Later, Sanders was interviewed by Detective Sandy Fent of the Springfield Police Department, and he gave Fent his cellphone for examination. A forensic examination of the phone revealed numerous images and videos of child pornography. In late April 2019, Sanders was indicted on nine counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition, as well as 38 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, six counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor, and seven counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. The case was tried to a jury.

{¶ 3} At the trial, Detective Brian Melchi testified that he had been trained to perform a forensic examination of cellphones and that he had performed a forensic extraction of all the data on Sanders’s cellphone and placed the data on a USB drive, which he gave to Detective Fent. There were 487 images and videos on the cellphone.

1 Initials are used to protect the privacy of minors.

Detective Fent testified that she had examined each one and found 27 images and videos showing sexual activity involving minors, naked minors, and the genitalia of minors. Detective Fent also found numerous personal, non-pornographic pictures and videos stored on the phone that plainly identified the cellphone as Sanders’s. Fent testified that the pornographic material was stored intermingled with the personal material. She also testified that the creation dates of the digital files containing the pornography (September 2017 - January 2019) overlapped with the creation dates of the files containing the personal images and videos (June 2015 - January 2019). Detective Fent testified that the pornographic material was “downloaded to [Sanders’s] phone.” (Tr. 200.) While the creation dates of some files predated when Sanders said he got the phone, Fent said that those files could have been transferred onto the phone.

{¶ 4} K.H. took the stand and testified that, in late 2015, Sanders tried to show her child pornography on his cellphone:

Q. And did he show you lots of pictures? How many pictures?

A. Yeah, it was like on a web browser, so it was like he searched it up and was like swiping through and showing me them.

Q. So he—are you saying that he pulled it up off the Internet right there in front of you?

A. No, it was already like pulled up on his phone.

(Tr. 336.)

{¶ 5} Sanders took the stand in his own defense and basically said that he did not know how the pornographic material got on his cellphone. He testified that he did not own a phone until 2016, when he rented one for two to four months. Sanders said that he

bought the phone on which the child pornography was found used from Amazon.com in February 2017. He testified that he did not transfer any pictures and did not know how the pornographic material got on the phone. Sanders said that he had had problems with images he did not recognize showing up on the phone and that he had purchased antivirus software to fix the problem.

{¶ 6} Sanders moved for a judgment of acquittal on all the counts. The trial court dismissed four counts of rape and two counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. The jury found Sanders not guilty of the remaining rape charges and the charge of gross sexual imposition, but it found him guilty of the remaining 49 counts based on the child pornography. The trial court declined to merge any of the offenses as allied offenses of similar import, and it sentenced Sanders to prison for 16 years: eight years total for the six charges of pandering obscenity involving a minor; eight years total for the 38 charges of pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor, consecutive to the sentence for pandering obscenity; and five years total for the five charges of illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material, concurrent with the other sentences.

{¶ 7} Sanders appeals, assigning five errors to the trial court.

II. Analysis

A. Denial of the motion for acquittal

{¶ 8} The first assignment of error alleges:

THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED ERROR WHEN IT OVERRULED DEFENSE RULE 29 MOTION TO DISMISS COUNTS 13-60.2

2We assume from the record that “60” is a numerical error and that it should read “61,” because there were 61 counts in the indictment.

{¶ 9} Sanders does not dispute the pornographic character of any of the material or that minors were depicted. Rather, he contends that the evidence was insufficient to show that he knew about the material or that he was responsible for its being on his cellphone.

{¶ 10} “A motion for acquittal under Crim.R. 29(A) is governed by the same standard as the one for determining whether a verdict is supported by sufficient evidence.” State v. Tenace, 109 Ohio St.3d 255, 2006-Ohio-2417, 847 N.E.2d 386, ¶ 37. “The relevant inquiry is whether, after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Jenks, 61 Ohio St.3d 259, 574 N.E.2d 492 (1991), paragraph two of the syllabus.

{¶ 11} The 49 offenses of which Sanders was found guilty comprised violations of three different statutes. Six offenses were pandering obscenity involving a minor under R.C. 2907.321, three of which were charged under R.C. 2907.321(A)(1) and three under (A)(5):

(A) No person, with knowledge of the character of the material or performance involved, shall do any of the following:

(1) Create, reproduce, or publish any obscene material that has a minor or impaired person as one of its participants or portrayed observers.

***

(5) Buy, procure, possess, or control any obscene material, that has a minor or impaired person as one of its participants.

Thirty-eight offenses were pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor under R.C. 2907.322; of those, 19 counts were violations of division (A)(1) and 19 were violations of division (A)(5):

(A) No person, with knowledge of the character of the material or performance involved, shall do any of the following:

(1) Create, record, photograph, film, develop, reproduce, or publish any material that shows a minor or impaired person participating or engaging in sexual activity, masturbation, or bestiality.

***

(5) Knowingly solicit, receive, purchase, exchange, possess, or control any material that shows a minor or impaired person participating or engaging in sexual activity, masturbation, or bestiality.

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State v. Sanders, 2021 Ohio 2431 (Ohio Ct. App. 2021).

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