The court announced its decision March 9 to decline the case of Charles Nguyen, who appealed to the court Dec. 7.
The Supreme Court of Ohio declined to hear the case of a New York man convicted of raping an Athens woman in 2009.
The court announced its decision March 9 to decline the case of Charles Nguyen, who appealed to the court Dec. 7.
Nguyen, 37, was convicted in August 2010 for rape, kidnapping and aggravated burglary — all felonies of the first degree — and tampering with evidence, a felony of the third degree, according to a previous Post report. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Nguyen’s most recent appeal asserted the case involved substantial constitutional questions regarding the right to trial and raised issues of “public or great general interest.”
Athens County Prosecuting Attorney Keller Blackburn argued in a Dec. 17 memorandum, however, that Nguyen did not present any reasons why the case has “public or great general interest,” adding that he clearly exercised his right to trial.
In the Supreme Court’s decision last month, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor cited a portion of the court’s rules about declining appeals that lack a substantial constitutional question or general or public interest.
Nguyen was arrested in June 2009 in New York for the rape and kidnapping of an Athens woman and was later indicted by an Athens County grand jury.
Nguyen met the woman on an online dating site in February 2009 and later entered her apartment on false pretenses and tied up her wrists and ankles, according to a previous Post report. He raped the woman and removed the majority of the evidence from the scene.
In 2011, Nguyen appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeals, which rejected his appeal. He appealed again later that year, and that appeal was sent to the Athens County Common Pleas Court to review his sentence.
That court affirmed Nguyen’s sentence of 30 years, according to court documents. Nguyen later appealed to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 2013, and the court also declined that appeal.
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