Youngstown Daily Legal News

Court rejects appeal from man who sexually battered multiple women

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 3, 2014

A trial court acted properly when it held a single trial for a man accused of having unwanted sexual encounters with four women, according to a recent ruling from the 12th District Court of Appeals.

The three-judge appellate panel held that the Warren County Court of Common Pleas properly denied Jessie Lee Morsie’s motion to sever his charges into separate trials.

The charges stemmed from his encounters with four women between summer 2010 and March 2011.

Each woman testified at a bench trial in the common pleas court and the state presented “an organized chronological overview of the facts and charges alleged against Morsie.”

M.T. testified first and told the court that she was at a friend’s apartment when an unknown individual filled up her drink and she became ill.

She said Morsie was also at the apartment and offered to help her back to her own apartment.

Having previously met Morsie, M.T. agreed to let him walk her home.

She said she was “totally out of it” and Morsie had to help her walk.

After entering what she assumed was her apartment, M.T. said she went straight to bed.

She drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the night and said she woke up to find herself naked and in pain.

When M.T. looked over her shoulder she saw Morsie sexually abusing her.

She said she was unable to move and passed out only to wake up in Morsie’s apartment the following day. M.T. returned to her own apartment and called the police.

When she confronted Morsie, she said he told her “you liked it and now I’m his woman he said.”

She also notified her apartment complex of her allegations and gave information about the incident to Lebanon detective Josh Holbrook.

D.B. testified next and said that she met Morsie on a chat line in the summer of 2010. She eventually agreed to meet Morsie at his apartment in July 2010.

She told the trial court that Morsie offered her some pills and she “acted like I took them, but I put them in my purse.”

A short time later, Morsie made sexual advances and D.B. said she told him no multiple times and tried to call for a ride home.

When no one answered her calls, D.B. said Morsie tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. She said she was able to get free and used Morsie’s phone to call the police.

She told the officers Morsie pulled her hair and broke her phone but did not tell Holbrook about Morsie’s attempt to force her to have oral sex for several months.

She said she delayed the information because she was “ashamed and embarrassed.”

The state then called A.S. to testify and she explained that she also met Morsie through a chat line and went to his apartment to meet him and his friends on Feb. 19, 2011. A.S. denied going to the apartment for any type of sexual relationship.

She said Morsie’s friends were already drunk when she got there and she had two beers, one of which Morsie got for her. She said that beer “tasted kind of funny.”

Morsie’s friends eventually left and A.S. said Morsie then turned on a pornographic video.

She asked him to turn it off and then started feeling “light headed and woozy.”

She said she went to the bathroom and returned to find Morsie with his pants unzipped and his genitals exposed. She said he wanted her to perform oral sex but she felt “real out of it.”

A.S. explained that she refused Morsie’s sexual advances and that was the last thing she remembered. When she woke up the following morning she said she was on Morsie’s couch completely naked.

Morsie refused to let A.S. use his phone to call for a ride and kicked her out of the apartment. She then called the police from a neighbor’s apartment and was taken to the hospital.

K.C. was the state’s next witness and she explained that she also met Morsie on a chat line and agreed to meet him at his apartment on March 20, 2011. She said she drank one Smirnoff beverage while talking to Morsie and declined Xanax pills.

The couple began kissing and K.C. said Morsie turned aggressive, pulling her hair and calling her names.

She said he pulled her skirt down and started penetrating her with the Smirnoff bottle.

K.C. testified that “I was crying and he didn’t stop until about 15 or 20 minutes later and he finally stopped but I was still crying.”

She said Morsie attacked her a second time and she was able to escape and call her sister who called the police.

Police later recovered the bottle Morsie used to penetrate K.C. in a nearby garbage bin.

Prior to trial, Morsie filed a motion to sever, which was denied. He did not renew that motion or present any evidence in his defense.

The trial court dismissed a charge of attempted rape of A.S. and found him guilty of two counts of sexual battery involving M.T., two counts of sexual battery involving K.C. and one count of attempted rape involving D.B.

It sentenced him to an aggregate sentence of eight years in prison.

On appeal, Morsie argued that the trial court committed reversible error by overruling his motion to sever.

The appellate panel maintained that the law favors joining multiple offenses into a single trial in order to conserve judicial resources and provide convenience for the witnesses.

“Nonetheless, pursuant to Crim.R. 14, if it appears that the defendant would be prejudiced by joinder of the charged offenses, the trial court may grant a severance,” Judge Stephen Powell wrote for the court.

Upon review, the judges noted that Morsie did not renew his motion to sever at the close of the state’s case.

“As this court has stated previously, where a defendant files a motion to sever, but ultimately fails to renew his motion at the close of either the state’s case or presentation of all evidence, such as the case here, the defendant waives all but plain error on appeal,” Judge Powell stated.

The judges found that each woman testified exclusively about her own allegations and the evidence was all presented in an organized fashion so as not to confuse the charges.

They ruled that the evidence concerning each victim and each offense could be easily segregated and a jury was not likely to be confused.

They further determined that the case was tried to a bench and the panel of judges was even less likely to be confused.

“Therefore, because we find no error, let alone plain error, in the trial court’s decision denying Morsie’s motion to sever, Morsie’s first assignment of error is overruled,” Judge Powell continued.

The judges did sustain his second assignment of error, however.

They found that the trial court failed to make the required findings prior to issuing consecutive sentences and failed to notify him that he may be ordered to perform community service if he does not pay his court costs.

Presiding Judge Robert Hendrickson and Judge Robert Ringland concurred in affirming the trial court’s judgment and remanding for resentencing.

The case is cited State v. Morsie, 2014-Ohio-172.

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