APPEAL
FROM JUDGMENT ENTERED IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS COUNTY OF
LORAIN, OHIO CASE No. 16CR094735
STEVEN
L. BRADLEY and MARK B. MAREIN, Attorneys at Law, for
Appellant.
DENNIS
P. WILL, Prosecuting Attorney, and LINDSEY C. POPROCKI,
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for Appellee.
DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY
SCHAFER, JUDGE.
{¶1}
Defendant-Appellant, Charles Brown, appeals from the judgment
of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas. This Court
reverses.
I.
{¶2}
D.B. is Brown's daughter, though he had little
involvement in her life for many years. Once she became a
preteen and teenager, Brown spent more time with her,
visiting and taking her and her half-sisters for shopping
trips. He also began talking to her about "sex
lessons." Brown repeatedly expressed his desire to teach
D.B. how to engage in both oral sex and vaginal intercourse
so that she could entice and maintain the interest of a
wealthy man someday. He raised the subject whenever the two
were alone together; a circumstance that increased once she
moved in with him and her half-sisters at the age of
seventeen.
{¶3}
About a month after D.B. moved in with Brown, he grounded her
because she spent the night elsewhere and failed to call
home. Although he allowed her to go to work each day, he
informed her that she would have to remain grounded until she
complied with the sex lessons. D.B. then surreptitiously
recorded several conversations she had with Brown, during
which he referenced the lessons. D.B. provided the recordings
to the police, and the police arrested Brown.
{¶4}
A grand jury indicted Brown on one count of attempted sexual
battery, one count of attempted child endangering, and one
count of domestic violence. At the conclusion of his trial, a
jury found Brown guilty of the two attempt counts, but not
guilty of the domestic violence count. The two attempt counts
were then merged as allied offenses of similar import such
that the court only sentenced Brown on the attempted sexual
battery count. The court imposed a prison sentence of
fourteen months and classified Brown as a tier III sexual
offender.
{¶5}
Brown now appeals from the trial court's judgment and
raises seven assignments of error for our review. For ease of
analysis, we consolidate several of the assignments of error.
II.
Assignment
of Error I
There was insufficient evidence of attempted sexual battery
to sustain a conviction in Count One.
Assignment
of Error II
There was insufficient evidence of attempted child
endangerment to sustain a conviction in Count Two.
{¶6}
In his first and second assignments of error, Brown argues
that his convictions for attempted sexual battery and
attempted child endangering ...