State v. Howard

• Docket Number: 112024
• Decision Date: 26 October 2023
• Citation: 2023 Ohio 3870
• Parties: STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. VINCENT HOWARD, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

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2023-Ohio-3870

STATE OF OHIO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. VINCENT HOWARD, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 112024

Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth District, Cuyahoga

October 26, 2023

Criminal Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-20-652446-A

Michael C. O'Malley, Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, and Daniel Cleary, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for appellee.

Charles A. Koenig, for appellant.

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

LISA B. FORBES, JUDGE

{¶ 1} Vincent Howard ("Howard") appeals his convictions of three counts of forcible rape in violation of R.C. 2907.02(A)(2), which are first-degree felonies, and one count of gross sexual imposition ("GSI") in violation of R.C. 2907.05(A)(1) which is a fourth-degree felony. After reviewing the facts of the case and pertinent law, we affirm Howard's convictions.

I. Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 2} On February 2, 2020, 19-year-old C.S. spent the night at Howard's house. Howard, who was 49 years old at the time, had been a father figure to C.S. for most of her life. C.S. and Howard engaged in sexual conduct, and the crux of this case concerns whether this sexual conduct was consensual.

{¶ 3} On August 17, 2020, Howard was charged with eight counts related to the alleged sexual assault of C.S. This case was tried to a jury, and on August 19, 2022, Howard was found guilty of three counts of forcible rape and one count of GSI. On September 15, 2022, the court sentenced Howard to an aggregate prison term of 15-17.5 years.

{¶ 4} Howard now appeals raising three assignments of error for our review:

I. The trial court abused its discretion by denying defense motions for a continuance of the trial, thereby denying appellant a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense which denied him effective assistance of counsel in violation of his rights under the due process clauses of the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Sections 10 and 16, Article I, of the Ohio Constitution.

II. Appellant was deprived of his constitutional rights to due process in violation of the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Section 10, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, as a consequence of the state's prosecutorial misconduct.

III. Appellant's convictions were not supported by sufficient evidence and were against the manifest weight of the evidence in violation of his rights under the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Sections 10 and 16 of the Ohio Constitution.

II. Trial Testimony and Evidence

{¶ 5} The state presented three witnesses: nurse Denise Robinson, C.S., and police officer Berri Cramer. Howard testified in his own defense.

A. Denise Robinson

{¶ 6} Denise Robinson ("Robinson") testified that she is the forensic program coordinator for University Hospitals and "primarily works with patients who have been victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, or victims of crimes." Robinson is also a SANE nurse, which means she is a certified sexual-assault nurse examiner who performs rape kits on sexual-assault victims. Robinson was working on February 3, 2020, and she treated C.S. as well as filled out C.S.'s sexual-assault forensic report (the "rape-kit report"). The state introduced this rape-kit report into evidence.

{¶ 7} According to Robinson, C.S. was 19 years old at the time Robinson treated her. C.S. named Howard as the person who sexually assaulted her. C.S. described Howard as her "Godfather." Robinson collected swabs from "dried stains" on C.S.'s head, breast, thighs, back, and hands because, according to C.S.'s "story[,] those are the areas that she mentioned that may have been touched. So those are the areas that I would swab." Robinson further testified about direct questions that she asked C.S., such as, "Did the finger touch or penetrate your vaginal, anal, or oral areas?" Robinson testified that C.S. answered "yes to vaginal."

{¶ 8} Robinson testified that, although C.S.'s narrative in the rape-kit report does not "really mention" digital penetration, Robinson "documented what [C.S.] told me in the narrative" by writing the word "yes" on the report in answer to the question, "Did finger touch or penetrate" C.S.'s vagina. To clarify, the prosecutor asked Robinson the following question: "But earlier [C.S.] did say that [Howard's] finger did go in there, but when she told you the whole story the finger wasn't mentioned, correct?" Robinson answered, "Yes, yes."

{¶ 9} Robinson testified that C.S. stated to her as follows during the examination: "He gave me oral. He tried to make me get on top of him when he was giving me oral. My legs were shaking. My heart was beating real fast. He asked why I was shaking." According to Robinson, C.S. was "[s]oft-spoken [and] tearful throughout" the examination, and C.S. told Robinson that she felt sick.

B. C.S.

{¶ 10} C.S. testified that she has known Howard since she was four years old when he was dating C.S.'s mother. C.S.'s mother passed away when C.S. was seven years old, but Howard remained in C.S.'s life. C.S. referred to Howard as her godfather, testifying that "he stepped up and fulfilled the role of father in my life." C.S. resided primarily with her grandmother, although she spent most weekends while she was growing up with Howard and his children.

{¶ 11} On February 2, 2020, at approximately 6:00 p.m., C.S. arrived to work at an Amazon fulfillment center. C.S. had a taser in her work bag, and when she entered the facility, her taser set off the metal detector. C.S. was sent home from work that evening. C.S. was upset, and she called her grandmother, then called Howard. C.S.'s grandmother and Howard agreed that C.S. needed to be patient, and she would be back at work in a few days. C.S. testified that Howard said to her, "[I]t's the Super Bowl, the game is on, you want to order a pizza and watch the game." C.S. then went to Howard's house in Garfield Heights.

{¶ 12} When C.S. arrived at Howard's house, he was home alone, and he had the television on in his bedroom. C.S. and Howard went into his bedroom to watch the Super Bowl. C.S. sat "[o]n the bed. In the corner toward the wall on the edge of the bed." C.S. testified as follows about what happened next:

After that he comes into the room and he sits at the head of the bed. And I was talking to him, looking at the game, not really paying attention to what was taking place, just trying to distract myself somewhat. And he said I still looked sad and to come up to the head of the bed so he could hold me. And he haven't held me like that since I was a kid. * * * And he told me with his arms out, as a hug, to come in like a father.

{¶ 13} C.S. went to Howard and laid her head on his chest. Howard called C.S. his "little baby." Howard continued to watch the Super Bowl, and C.S. fell asleep still "laying" on H0ward. At some point later, C.S. woke up to Howard "caressing" her arm and leg. C.S.'s testimony continued: "When I woke up, my sports bra and my shirt being lifted and all - the game was off and the lights were off and the door was closed. * * * My shirt was being lifted and my sports bra and I was on my back." According to C.S., Howard's hands were on her breasts. C.S. testified that she "[f]elt like a dead body. Like I felt like I couldn't move. I felt like I got stuck - just felt stuck. I just felt real heavy and stuck. Just like my body was just paralyzed."

{¶ 14} According to C.S., Howard was on top of her. "His hands were on my breasts and he was making his way down towards my pants to pull them down. He was like on his like knees. He was laying down. As I was laying on my back, he was maybe like laying over me. So as he was pulling my shirt up * * * he was making his way down to pull my pants like down my body is what I am trying to tell y'all."

{¶ 15} C.S. testified that when she first woke up, Howard's head "was like on my breast. He was playing with my breasts, licking my breasts." Howard took C.S.'s pants and underwear off. C.S. did not tell Howard no, and she did not "try to fight him off." Asked why, C.S. testified as follows:

I was just preparing myself for what was about to happen because I was feeling around for my phone and my keys, where they was at before I fell asleep. And I couldn't feel them nowhere. So I was just preparing myself for what I knew - I knew what was about to happen, thought was about to happened because the door was closed and my phone and my keys was moved from the side of me and the bedroom door was closed and all the lights was off. And he was on top of me. So I was telling myself like no fighting this because of the size. And I knew I can't make a run for it because the door is closed and I can't call nobody because my phone and stuff was moved from the side of me. So I just was bracing myself for the fact that he going to rape me and then kill me right afterwards. That's all I kept trying to prepare myself for. I just kept telling myself over and over.

{¶ 16} Asked if she cried, C.S. answered, "Yeah. I cried the whole time. I opened my eyes to realize it wasn't a dream."

{¶ 17} C.S. testified that Howard did not say anything until he pulled her pants down. "When he pulled my pants down, he performed oral on me and was pleasuring hisself and that's when he started talking and saying he was so sorry." Asked if Howard put his mouth on her vagina, C.S. answered, "Yes." C.S.'s testimony continued:

Q: While he's down there using his mouth on your vagina where are his hands? What are his hands doing?

A: Pleasuring hisself. He was masturbating.

Q: Are either of his hands touching your vagina that you know of? Was anything going inside of your

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