Opinion ID: 2478526
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Information on favorable treatment of Hester and Jasper

Text: {¶ 45} Third, Ketterer argues that the panel erred by refusing to order the state to disclose information pertaining to the favorable treatment offered to Scott Hester and Tyrone Jasper. {¶ 46} Before his resentencing hearing, Ketterer did not request disclosure of information pertaining to any favorable treatment Hester or Jasper received in the disposition of their criminal charges. Ketterer's failure to make these requests is a waiver of his present claim. See State v. Iacona, 93 Ohio St.3d at 101, 752 N.E.2d 937 (when a Brady violation is uncovered prior to the close of trial, the failure to request a continuance will usually constitute a waiver of the error on appeal). Nevertheless, these claims also lack merit. {¶ 47} Hester's testimony related solely to Ketterer's motion to suppress his pretrial statements. In that motion, Ketterer argued that he was subjected to custodial interrogation at the moment the police asked him to accompany them to the station on the evening of February 25. Ketterer attempted to develop testimony at the motion hearing that Hester observed Ketterer being taken away in handcuffs outside 706 East Avenue. But Hester was a reluctant witness and at first refused to testify. After the court ordered him to testify, Hester stated that he was not going to lie for the defendant. {¶ 48} The defense called Jason Kristanoff, the defense investigator, who testified that he interviewed Hester in jail and that Hester stated that on the night of February 25, he saw Ketterer being arrested and taken away in handcuffs. While on the stand, Hester retracted the statements he had made to Kristanoff. The court denied the motion to suppress. {¶ 49} With respect to Jasper, the state informed the defense that Jasper, an inmate in the Butler County jail, was a potential witness. The state provided the defense with a summary of Jasper's criminal record. But Jasper was never called as a witness. During the mitigation hearing, the prosecutor informed the court that Jasper would have been called as a rebuttal witness if the defense had introduced DNA results, which raised the possibility that someone else was involved in committing the offenses. {¶ 50} Ketterer argues that the state failed to disclose favorable treatment that Hester received following his testimony at the hearing on the motion to suppress and failed to disclose the disposition of pending charges against Jasper. {¶ 51} The Brady claim as to Hester lacks merit because the disposition of charges against him was not material to Ketterer's resentencing. Ketterer became acquainted with Hester while they were both in jail. Yet because Hester had no involvement in Sanders's murder, the robbery and burglary of his house, or the theft of his car, Hester's testimony was relevant only to the motion to suppress and had no bearing on Ketterer's resentencing. {¶ 52} Similarly, the disposition of charges against Jasper was not material to Ketterer's resentencing, because he too was not involved in the offenses. Jasper's testimony was relevant only as a potential prosecution rebuttal witness based on what Ketterer appears to have told him about the offenses in jail. Accordingly, information about Jasper had no bearing on Ketterer's resentencing. {¶ 53} Even assuming that information about Hester and Jasper should have been disclosed, no Brady violation occurred, because Ketterer knew about the disposition of charges against both of them. In a motion filed before the resentencing hearing, Ketterer described the charges against Hester and set forth their disposition. In the same motion, Ketterer discussed charges and their disposition against Jasper. {¶ 54} Based on the foregoing, no Brady violation occurred during Ketterer's resentencing.