Partin, through her appellate attorney, Neal Schuette of the Rittgers and Rittgers law firm, is seeking to overturn her conviction.
After the eight-day trial in Butler County Common Pleas Court, the jury deliberated 12 hours before finding Partin guilty on all charges. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years.
The appeal filed in October said there were alleged legal errors. It claims that Partin’s case was prejudiced when the prosecution failed to disclose some facts and that she received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel.
Partin was not present. during appeals proceedings. Written briefs are filed, and each side has 15 minutes to present arguments to the judges. according to Ben Manning, appeals court administrator.
Then the panel of judges, who are familiar with the the written material submitted, ask questions of the attorneys. An opinion must be released within 60 days.
During seven days of testimony, the jury heard Partin’s confession to slapping and hitting the toddler in the days leading up to March 8, then shaking her on that day. She also said the 3-year-old had a couple of falls that caused the bruising observed by the doctors, coroner and EMTs.
Doctors gave testimony about how long the child could have been walking, talking and acting normally after the fatal head injury. Doctors who treated and observed Hannah at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital said she would not have been able to function within seconds or minutes.
The forensic pathologist who performed Hannah’s autopsy said she suffered deep bruising to the back of her head. She also had a hemorrhage to the optic nerve and “tremendous brain damage.”
The prosecution’s doctor said Hannah’s death was a homicide and the toddler would not have been normal within “a couple moments” of receiving the injury.
A defense forensic pathologist testified Hannah could have had a lucid interval after the injury. He said other bruising in the skull was caused by brain swelling after the injury.
Hannah was with Partin for only a short time on March 8, 2018, before she collapsed. The defense said the the injury could have been caused by her father, Jason Wesche, who dropped her off that morning, or a fall.
On appeal, Schuett, said the state should have disclosed to the defense that Jason Wesche had a friend staying at his home on March 7, 2018, and that he “lied to investigators that he did not got to Walmart with Hannah Wesche to get milk on March 7, 2018, and that he lied to investigators for over a year.”
At trial, the defense highlighted inconsistencies in Jason Wesche’s testimony when he testified.
The appeal argues that Partin’s counsel was ineffective by not filing a motion to suppress her interrogation statements to investigators and failing to object, or even ask for a continuance, when they were surprised by undisclosed information by the state.
But the state argued in a response filed in January that the testimony from experts and confessions from Partin support the convictions. Assistant Butler County Prosecutor Michael Greer argued the case for the prosecution during oral arguments
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