State v. Lewis

In State v. Lewis (1970), 21 Ohio St.2d 203, 257 N.E.2d 59, the decisive case regarding a fatal variance, the state had charged the defendant with conspiring to defraud a hospital. The state's bill of particulars alleged two manners in which the hospital was allegedly defrauded, but the only proof presented by the state at trial on the issue was different from both these manners. The Ohio Supreme Court found that the proof of the manner in which the hospital was defrauded was "not even suggested by any allegations of the indictment or by any bill of particulars thereunder," and therefore, the defendant was "necessarily" prejudiced." Id. at 212.