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State v. Steinman4/15/1992
FAIN, Presiding Judge.
Defendant-appellant Lawrence J. Steinman, Jr., a.k.a. Larry Miller, appeals from his conviction and sentence, following a jury trial, for tampering with records, transferring a motor vehicle with a tampered odometer, and failure to provide the true odometer reading.
Steinman contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence containing hearsay, thus denying him the right to confront witnesses against him, and that the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct by commenting on his decision not to testify at trial. We conclude that the evidence admitted constituted an exception to the hearsay rule as a public record under Evid. R. 803(8) and did not deprive him of his constitutional rights to confront witnesses. We further conclude that, although the prosecutor's comments were misconduct and constitute error, Steinman interposed no objection, and the comments do not satisfy the test for plain error. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
In April 1990, Sandra Towberman responded to an advertisement in the Dayton Daily News for a 1982 Dodge Colt. She spoke on the telephone to a man who identified himself as "Larry Miller," and the next day drove to the Habitat Condominiums in Montgomery County, where she met him and looked at the car. The car was actually a 1986 Dodge Colt, and she test-drove it fosabout half a mile. The odometer showed approximately 49,000 miles. After thinking it over briefly, she agreed to buy the car for $2,150 plus her old car.
The next day, they met to exchange titles and keys. Larry Miller, who she identified at trial as the defendant, Lawrence Steinman, certified on the title papers in her presence that the true odometer reading on the car was 49,093 miles.
That evening, Towberman became suspicious when she noticed that the warranty page in the owner's manual was missing and that the prior owner of the car was shown as Fairfield Auto Sales, rather than Miller's wife, as Miller had claimed. Towberman checked with the Greene County Clerk of Courts, who had issued the title, and discovered that the prior certificate of title showed the odometer reading as 79,050.
Greene County Deputy Clerk William Litteral testified regarding four certificates of title to the Colt. These titles included those from Huntington National Bank to Fairfield Auto Sales, reflecting an odometer reading of 79,031; and from Fairfield Auto Sales to Larry Miller, reflecting an odometer reading of 79,050. The latter certificate indicated that Rob Snyder, of Fairfield Auto Sales, signed the certificate as seller and Larry Miller as buyer. Litteral testified that he had never seen the car, had no personal knowledge of the odometer reading, and that his knowledge was derived from the certificates under his custody and control. Chuck Hale, co-owner of Fairfield Auto Sales, testified that he did not personally buy the car in question; he did sign the certificate of title as buyer for Fairfield Auto Sales, but he had no personal knowledge regarding the odometer reading.
Robert Snyder, a co-owner of Fairfield Auto Sales, testified that he did not know a Larry Miller, but he identified the defendant as his roommate, Larry Steinman. Snyder testified that when Steinman indicated that he had a potential buyer for the car, Snyder gave Steinman the car and the title, saying that he wanted $2,000 and Steinman could keep anything over that amount that he was able to get for the car. Snyder also testified that what purported to be his signature on the certificate of title showing the sale from Fairfield Auto Sales to Larry Miller was not in fact his signature.
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