State v. Dzelajlija
Annotate this CaseIn 2006, Dzelajlija was convicted of robbery, R.C. 2911.02. The court of appeals granted a new trial, finding that the trial court had admitted inadmissible and prejudicial evidence. In 2008, Dzelajlija was again found guilty and sentenced to concurrent seven-year terms. The appeals court reversed, finding that the indictment was defective for failing to state a culpable mental state for either offense. More than a year later, before a retrial, the Ohio Supreme Court decided State v. Horner, which overruled precedent relevant to the indictment being defective. The trial court determined that the grounds for reversal no longer existed and reimposed the sentence. The appeals court agreed, but nevertheless reversed, finding Dzelajlija’s argument regarding the manifest weight of the evidence, earlier declared moot, had never been resolved. On reconsideration, the appeals court held that the trial court erred in considering the matter as pending under the original indictment and vacated the convictions and sentences. The Ohio Supreme Court reversed and remanded: the sentences could not be reimposed, because there was an outstanding issue of whether Dzelajlija’s convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence, but the convictions were vacated based on cases that have been repudiated.
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