Immediate Press Release
Contact-Colleen M. O’Toole
216/509-5433
IN RE: State of Ohio vs. Robert Bisbee
Case Number: 2022-A-0059
The Court of Appeals of Ohio Eleventh Appellate District has affirmed the judgement of the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas.
Defendant-appellant, Robert A. Bisbee appealed his convictions for aggravated burglary and aggravated menacing following a jury trial in the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas.
Mr. Bisbee’s convictions arose from an incident in which he broke into the home of a 17-year-old who had impregnated his teenage daughter and held a knife to his throat.
Mr. Bisbee presents three assignments of error, contending (1) the trial court erred by admitting other-acts evidence; (2) the prosecutor committed misconduct during closing argument; and (3) his conviction for aggravated burglary was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
After careful review of the record and pertinent law, the Court of Appeals of Ohio Eleventh Appellate District finds as follows:
(1) Mr. Bisbee has not established plain error with respect to the Prosecutor’s exaggeration of his alleged statements. The Prosecutor did not purport to quote the victims’ testimony verbatim; the trial court instructed the jury that counsel’s statements are not evidence; and both victims testified Mr. Bisbee threatened to cause them serious physical harm.
(2) The trial did not err by admitting other-acts evidence. The victim’s testimony about a prior confrontation with Mr. Bisbee, if believed, tended to show Mr. Bisbee had motive to commit the charged offenses, which is a permitted purpose for other-acts evidence under Evid.R. 404(B).
(3) Mr. Bisbee’s conviction for aggravated burglary was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Mr. Bisbee has not established certain testimony should have been excluded or the jury clearly lost its way or created a manifest miscarriage of justice regarding discrepancies in the victim’s testimony.
