LISBON — A Wellsville man sentenced in September 2023 to life in prison for raping a young boy over a six-year period is seeking approval to file a delayed appeal, claiming he received incorrect advice and no guidance on his right to appeal.

Spencer Kidder, 70, had the motion for leave to file delayed appeal submitted to the Seventh District Court of Appeals by Youngstown attorney Rhys Cartwright-Jones on Thursday.

“The defendant did not perfect a timely appeal due to reliance on incorrect advice from trial counsel and a lack of guidance on appellate rights. Granting this motion would uphold the interests of justice and ensure the defendant’s right to appeal his conviction and sentence,” the motion said.

Under the rules, a defendant has 30 days after the judgment entry for his conviction is filed with the local Clerk of Courts office. In this case, Spencer Kidder was found guilty by a jury and sentenced immediately by Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton on Sept. 21, 2023, with the judgment entry file-stamped Sept. 28, 2023. The 30 days to file a notice of appeal came and went at the end of October 2023 with no appeal filed.

According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Spencer Kidder’s admission date to prison was Nov. 1, 2023 and he’s currently incarcerated at Noble Correctional.

As part of the filing, Cartwright-Jones included a copy of the Common Pleas Court judgment, whose last line reads, “The defendant was advised of his right to appeal pursuant to Crim.R. 32.”

His defense counsel for the trial, Charley Kidder, who’s no relation to Spencer Kidder, said after the hearing that his client’s family was going to work on an appeal.

Cartwright-Jones cited affidavits from Spencer Kidder and from another individual as the evidence to support permission to file a delayed appeal, claiming that Spencer Kidder said in the affidavit that “no attorney informed him of the procedures or his rights concerning an appeal. This absence of counsel’s guidance left him unaware of the necessity to act within the 30-day period typically allotted for filing an appeal.”

In the motion, Cartwright-Jones also referred to a statement by a man identified as Roland Maze, who allegedly claimed that trial counsel advised the appropriate course involved waiting until Spencer Kidder’s transfer to prison before initiating an appeal.

The motion for delayed appeal suggested the combination of incorrect advice and lack of information provided to Spencer Kidder created a reasonable explanation for the delay, with Ohio law permitting a delayed appeal when a defendant shows a reasonable explanation for failing to file a timely appeal.

Spencer Kidder wants his case reviewed on appeal.

The jury found him guilty 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 issued a sentence of 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.