A man found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a woman who suffered injuries as an infant had his conviction upheld by the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Scott Wilson, of Clermont County, argued that the delay in his indictment negatively impacted his ability to defend himself after he was charged.
Wilson was prosecuted 16 years after Heather Gentry died from injuries she sustained as an infant. Gentry suffered severe brain trauma weeks after her birth in 1985 after Wilson shook her. Heather died in 2006, and Wilson was indicted in connection with her death in 2022.
The indictment came after Wilson attempted to seal records related to the misdemeanor assault conviction he received after the 1985 incident.
Wilson argued the delay violated his due process rights because witnesses and records were gone or unavailable.
However, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled against Wilson, finding he failed to demonstrate actual prejudice from the delay and rejecting his appeal.
The majority opinion also overruled part of a line of cases stemming from the 1984 State v. Luck decision, which created a test for claims that a delayed indictment violated a defendant's constitutional rights. The "Luck test" required a defendant to show that the delayed indictment caused harm to the defense.
Although Justice Patrick F. Fischer agreed in a concurring opinion that Wilson was not harmed by the delay, he disagreed with the majority's decision to overrule the state's preindictment-delay test. Fischer noted that prosecutors never argued in lower courts that the test should be abandoned.
In January 2024, Wilson entered a no contest plea to involuntary manslaughter and was found guilty.
According to the Clermont County Prosecutor's Office, on Jan. 5, 1985, Wilson was at home with a woman and her 6-week-old daughter, Heather Gentry. The woman got into the shower while Gentry slept, leaving her with Wilson, prosecutors said.
While the woman was in the shower, Gentry began to cry, but her crying abruptly stopped. Later that day, Gentry's mother found her baby would not wake and was unresponsive, so she and Wilson rushed her to a pediatrician. That physician instructed them to take Gentry immediately to Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
Two days later, the Clermont County Sheriff's Office was alerted to Gentry's injuries and began investigating, according to the prosecutor's office.
Prosecutors said Wilson confessed to detectives that he'd shaken Gentry.
On Dec. 1, 2006, Gentry died. Her cause of death was determined to be encephalopathy "due to late effects of blunt trauma to the head," and her case was ruled a homicide, prosecutors said.
From the day Wilson shook her until her death 21 years later, prosecutors said Gentry was confined to a bed, unable to walk or communicate and required a feeding tube and around-the-clock care.
