State v. Tillman

695 N.E.2d 792, 119 Ohio App. 3d 449
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 7, 1997
DocketNo. 96CA006427.
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 695 N.E.2d 792 (State v. Tillman) 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. Tillman, 695 N.E.2d 792, 119 Ohio App. 3d 449 (Ohio Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

Reece, Judge.

Appellant, Kevin Tillman, appeals his conviction of rape in violation of R.C. 2907.02(A)(1)(b). We affirm.

I

On February 14, 1989, the Lorain County Grand Jury indicted Kevin Tillman for the rape of his niece Arnica. At trial, Arnica testified that on her seventh birthday, April 29, 1984, Tillman, under the guise of “playing house,” anally sodomized her. On April 3, 1989, Tillman was convicted and sentenced to a period of incarceration of ten to twenty-five years. On April 7, 1989, Tillman moved to vacate the judgment and conviction against him, for arrest of judgment, and for a new trial, arguing that he was only seventeen at the time of the rape and thus had been improperly tried as an adult. This court affirmed Tillman’s conviction, holding that Tillman waived the juvenile court’s jurisdiction by failing to raise the issue of his age prior to conviction, thereby voluntarily subjecting himself to the jurisdiction of the general division of the court of common pleas. State v. Tillman (1990), 66 Ohio App.3d 464, 585 N.E.2d 550.

Finding our decision in Tillman in conflict with a First District opinion, the Supreme Court addressed the issue in State v. Wilson (1995), 73 Ohio St.3d 40, 652 N.E.2d 196. In Wilson, the Supreme Court held that the juvenile court’s subject matter jurisdiction cannot be waived, and, “absent a proper bindover procedure pursuant to R.C. 2151.26, the juvenile court has the exclusive subject *453 matter jurisdiction over any case concerning a child who is alleged to be a delinquent.” 1 73 Ohio St.3d at 44, 652 N.E.2d at 199. Therefore Wilson, who was seventeen at the time he committed the offense in question, was improperly tried in the general division.of the court of common pleas. “Because the general division of the court of common pleas lacked subject matter jurisdiction to convict Wilson, the judgment of conviction against him was void ab initio.” Id.

Thereafter, Tillman moved for postconviction relief, arguing that pursuant to Wilson, his rape conviction was a nullity. The trial court granted Tillman’s motion and vacated his conviction on October 26, 1995. On that same date, a complaint was filed against Tillman in the Juvenile Division of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas, alleging that Tillman was a delinquent child by virtue of the April 29, 1984 rape of his niece Arnica. Tillman was bound over to the General Division of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas. A jury again convicted Tillman of rape. The court sentenced Tillman to a period of incarceration of ten to twenty-five years, with credit for the time served prior to vacation of his original conviction. This appeal followed.

II

Tillman presents eight assignments of error. We have carefully reviewed each of Tillman’s arguments and find all lacking in merit. We will address each assignment of error in the order offered. .

A

“I. Appellant was denied equal protection under the law and a fair trial by the state’s peremptory challenge of two African-American jurors on the prospective panel.

“II. Appellant was denied effective assistance of counsel as guaranteed by Article I, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution when counsel failed to object in a timely manner to the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges on African-American jurors.”

Tillman claims that the state excused two African-American jurors based solely on race. He also claims that trial counsel failed to object to the state’s racially discriminatory use of its peremptory challenges in a timely fashion, thus rendering trial counsel’s assistance ineffective. Tillman asks us to review the actions of the trial court in overruling his objection to the peremptory challenges against *454 the two African-American jurors who were excused, while failing to provide this court with a transcript of the voir dire proceedings.

An appellant has the responsibility of providing the reviewing court with a record of the facts, testimony, and evidentiary matters that are necessary to support the appellant’s assignments of error. Volodkevich v. Volodkevich (1989), 48 Ohio App.3d 313, 314, 549 N.E.2d 1237, 1238-1239. In the absence of a complete record, an appellate court must presume regularity in the trial court’s proceedings. State v. Roberts (1991), 66 Ohio App.3d 654, 657, 585 N.E.2d 934, 936-937. Upon objection, the trial court stated the following:

“I made some notes during the inquiries, and I found that both those prospective jurors, Kathy Haynes and Rose Card, had had previous experience with a criminal justice system, and they were inquired up [sic] pretty diligently as to that participation. And when they were excused, I could see the responses by the prospective jurors had nothing to do with race, but whether they might have been contaminated with some emotion or feelings concerning what had happened to members of their family that had been involved in the criminal justice system. So I don’t see any excuse here or any challenge here based on race. I see it based on prior knowledge or experience in the family way of the criminal justice system as a cause for excuse.”

Under the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Batson v. Kentucky (1986), 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69, in order to raise a prima facie case of purposeful racial discrimination in jury selection based on the use of peremptory challenges, Tillman must show (1) that he belongs to a cognizable racial group, (2) that the prosecution excluded members of his race, and (3) that those facts and other circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to purposefully exclude members of Tillman’s race. State v. Cook (1992), 65 Ohio St.3d 516, 519, 605 N.E.2d 70, 77. “The prosecutor’s statements and actions during voir dire may refute this inference.” Id. Only if the trial court determines, in its discretion, that such an inference has arisen does the burden then shift to the prosecution to articulate a race-neutral reason for excluding the prospective juror or jurors. Id. Thus, the mere fact that Tillman and the excluded jurors were of the same race does not, as Tillman asserts, constitute a prima facie showing of discrimination requiring the prosecution to state race-neutral reasons for exclusion.

From the transcript before us it appears that the trial court determined, based on the voir dire proceedings, that Tillman had failed to raise an inference of discrimination. Without a complete transcript of the voir dire proceedings so as to review them as a whole, we cannot hold that the court below abused its discretion in concluding that the prosecutor’s questions, and the prospective *455

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Bellamy
2024 Ohio 2076 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2024)
State v. Robinson
2021 Ohio 1053 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
State v. Breucker
2021 Ohio 31 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
State v. Hartman
2017 Ohio 1089 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)
State v. Vu
2012 Ohio 746 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2012)
State v. Cicerchi
915 N.E.2d 350 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2009)
State v. Sims, Ca2007-11-300 (2-9-2009)
2009 Ohio 550 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2009)
In Re R.A., 08ca009418 (12-22-2008)
2008 Ohio 6745 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
State v. Moore, 24126 (8-6-2008)
2008 Ohio 3955 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
Lunato v. Stevens Painton Corp, 08ca009318 (6-30-2008)
2008 Ohio 3206 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
State v. Whitmire, 24000 (6-30-2008)
2008 Ohio 3216 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
State v. Williams, 23560 (3-12-2008)
2008 Ohio 1048 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2008)
State v. Smith, Unpublished Decision (10-17-2007)
2007 Ohio 5524 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2007)
State v. Spannahake, Unpublished Decision (3-29-2006)
2006 Ohio 1489 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2006)
State v. Hill, Unpublished Decision (3-10-2006)
2006 Ohio 1166 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2006)
State v. Davis, Unpublished Decision (11-23-2005)
2005 Ohio 6224 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Haren, Unpublished Decision (1-7-2005)
2005 Ohio 50 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Sanders, Unpublished Decision (10-22-2004)
2004 Ohio 5629 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2004)
State v. Woodward, Unpublished Decision (8-24-2004)
2004 Ohio 4418 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
695 N.E.2d 792, 119 Ohio App. 3d 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-tillman-ohioctapp-1997.