FIRST DISTRICT
COURT OF APPEALS
THESE SUMMARIES ARE NEITHER APPROVED IN ADVANCE NOR ENDORSED BY THE COURT. THEY ARE NOT HEADNOTES OR SYLLABI. INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD OBTAIN COPIES OF THE ACTUAL DECISIONS FROM THE CLERK OF THE COURT OF APPEALS.
DATE: Thursday, July 3, 2025
CAPTION: STATE v. Deloney
APPEAL No.: C-240009
TRIAL No.: B-1303726
KEY WORDS: competency to stand trial – confrontation clause – civ.r. 43(A) – juror bias – faretta – right of self-representation – ineffective assistance of counsel
SUMMARY: The trial court did not err in failing to order a competency hearing sua sponte where defendant was previously found competent to stand trial and subsequent facts and events did not create a sufficient doubt about his competency.
The trial court did not err in determining that defendant’s absence from trial was voluntary where defendant was offered the opportunity to appear in court each day and failed to present evidence to corroborate that his injuries or medications prevented him from participating at trial.
The trial court did not plainly err in failing to strike two jurors sua sponte for bias where one was rehabilitated and the other’s responses were merely ambiguous.
Defendant did not receive constitutionally ineffective assistance where counsel failed to strike two jurors either peremptorily or for-cause, but where one juror was rehabilitated and the other juror’s answers were merely ambiguous.
The trial court did not err by denying defendant’s request to represent himself made on the third day of voir dire, as the request was untimely.
Even assuming counsel was ineffective for failing to secure the suppression of defendant’s confession and exclusion of testimony of the State’s facial-recognition expert, defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights were not violated because defendant failed to show that the admission of either the confession or the expert testimony prejudiced him.
JUDGMENT: affirmed
JUDGES: OPINION by Crouse, J.; KINSLEY, P.J., and BOCK, J., CONCUR.
CAPTION: STATE V. POLICANO
APPEAL NO.: C-240503
TRIAL NO.: C/24/CRB/2949/A
KEY WORDS: RESTITUTION — ECONOMIC LOSS
SUMMARY: The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it relied on a contractor’s estimate for replacing the victim’s front door damaged by defendant because (1) the replacement cost is an appropriate measure of value where the value of the victim’s property before the offense is not readily discernable and (2) a lower estimate failed to account for the full scope of replacing the damaged property.
JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED
JUDGES: OPINION by BOCK, J.; ZAYAS, P.J., and CROUSE, J., CONCUR.
CAPTION: IN RE: D.K.
APPEAL NO.: C-250160
TRIAL NO.: F/17/290 Z
KEY WORDS: PERMANENT CUSTODY — SUFFICIENCY — WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE — BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD — R.C. 2151.414(B)(1)(d) — R.C. 2151.414(D)(1)(a) — R.C. 2151.414(D)(1)(b) — R.C. 2151.414(D)(1)(c) — LEGALLY SECURE PLACEMENT — R.C. 2151.414(D)(1)(d) — R.C. 2151.414(D)(1)(e) — R.C. 2151.414(E)(1) — R.C. 2151.414(E)(2) — R.C. 2151.414(E)(4) — ABANDONMENT — R.C. 2151.414(E)(10)
SUMMARY: The juvenile court’s judgment granting the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services’ (“JFS”) motion for permanent custody was supported by sufficient evidence and was not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence where clear and convincing evidence demonstrated that permanent custody was in the child’s best interest under R.C. 2151.414(B)(1)(d) as the child had been in the temporary custody of JFS for 12 or more months of a consecutive 22-month period, and mother failed to remedy the issues which brought the child into JFS’s temporary custody where she (1) struggled with sobriety and consistency in engaging in counseling services throughout the three-year pendency of the case, (2) inconsistently visited with the child over the course of the proceedings, and (3) became homeless months before trial after she sold her home and obtained housing only days before trial commenced, and while mother did not abandon the child, father was found to have abandoned her.
JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED
JUDGES: OPINION by MOORE, J.; CROUSE, P.J., and NESTOR, J., CONCUR.