LISBON — A Wellsville man sentenced in September 2023 to life in prison for raping a young boy over a six-year period is still trying to challenge the outcome by filing a petition to vacate or set aside the judgment of conviction or sentence.

Spencer Kidder, 72, had the petition filed on his behalf last week by his appellate attorney Rhys Cartwright-Jones. Last year he lost his appeal to the Seventh District Court of Appeals and just before the year ended, the Ohio Supreme Court declined jurisdiction to hear his appeal of that decision.

Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton recently set the briefing schedule for the petition to vacate, writing that any response must be filed no later than 4 p.m. Feb. 20 and any reply to the response must be filed no later than 4 p.m. Feb. 27.

The petition to vacate calls for an order vacating the conviction and sentence, granting a new trial or granting an evidentiary hearing and other relief.

Grounds for relief listed in the petition include ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and post-judgment, violations related to alleged failure to disclose certain materials such as expert reports, bench notes, worksheets, drafts and methodology materials, confrontation clause and due process violations, improper expert testimony and vouching, alleged newly discovered or newly-appreciated evidence and cumulative error.

“The affidavits, missing expert materials, unresolved discovery issues, and disputed facts concerning appellate advice establish operative facts outside the direct-appeal process. Those unresolved issues bear directly on constitutional violations and prejudice and require an evidentiary hearing following production or in camera review of expert and third-party materials,” Cartwright-Jones wrote.

Some of those same claims were made during the appeal to the Seventh District Court of Appeals. The appeal claimed the trial court erred by allowing testimony which violated the confrontation clause and hearsay rule. The appeal also claimed the defendant had ineffective assistance from his attorney for failing to object to hearsay statements and there wasn’t enough evidence to support his conviction.

The Seventh District Court of Appeals ruled against the defendant’s claims and affirmed the conviction.

A jury found Spencer Kidder guilty on Sept. 21, 2023 of four counts of rape, a first-degree felony, two counts of sexual battery, a second-degree felony, and a single count of third-degree felony gross sexual imposition.

The first two rape charges covered the time period when the boy was under 10 years old from Jan 1, 2014 through July 16, 2018, with the other two rape charges covering the time after age 10 and under age 13 from July 17, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2020. The time period for the two counts of sexual battery and single count of gross sexual imposition all covered Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2020.

Bickerton sentenced him immediately to life in prison without the possibility of parole for each of the first two rapes, to be served concurrently to each other, then 10 years to life for the other two rapes to be served concurrently to each other but consecutive to the life without parole term, then an additional five years for the gross sexual imposition. The sentence for the sexual battery charges was merged as part of the rape sentence.

At the time, he was advised by the judge of his right to appeal, but no appeal was filed within the required 30-day timeframe by the end of October 2023.

The Seventh District Court of Appeals, however, granted his request to file a delayed appeal after he made the request in December 2024, 14 months after his conviction. Then the appeal was denied and the appellate court agreed with the conviction and sentence issued by Bickerton.