Unlawful sex charge upheld by appeals court

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The conviction of a former Lake Township man for unlawful sexual conduct with a minor has been upheld by the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals.
Travis W. Hilderbrand, 48, had entered a guilty plea to the charge in Wood County Common Pleas Court but later filed an appeal, claiming his legal counsel was ineffective.
He had been indicted in October 2021 on charges of rape, aggravated burglary, gross sexual imposition, and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The alleged incidents occurred in September 2021, according to the indictment, and involved a 15-year-old girl.
In May, 2022, Hilderbrand filed a motion with the common pleas court requesting statements he made in an interview with a police officer be suppressed. His motion argued the statements were made after he invoked his right to counsel and were made “without a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent waiver of his rights.”
The court denied his motion in September, 2022.
Five months later, Hilderbrand withdrew his former plea of not guilty to all four charges and entered a guilty plea just to the unlawful sexual conduct charge. According to the plea agreement, the other charges would be dismissed at sentencing and the prosecution would recommend a cap of 36 months if Hilderbrand was sentenced to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
He was sentenced to 30 months and is subject to five years of post-release control. He was also classified as a Tier II sex offender.
In his appeal, Hilderbrand claimed if his statements had been suppressed it would have made it more difficult for the prosecution to prove his guilt and he would have taken the case to trial and possibly found not guilty. And if he had entered a no contest plea he wouldn’t have been precluded from asserting on appeal that the trial court erred in ruling on a pre-trial motion to suppress evidence, he argued.
The appeals court disagreed.
“Here, we find trial counsel’s negotiation of Hilderbrand’s plea agreement was a trial tactic that effectively reduced his exposure from four charges, including two first-degree felonies, to one conviction for a third-degree felony. Hilderbrand does not point to anything in the record which would support a finding that he would have received this same offer if he pled no contest,” the appeals court wrote.