WARREN – Ohio’s 11th District Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a sexually violent predator in an attempted kidnapping case in 2022, according to court records.

David Honzu, 66, who is serving separate, consecutive life sentences for multiple convictions, requested post-conviction relief, which the court rejected in a decision released Monday.

Honzu’s most recent appeal stems from his 2022 conviction involving an attempted kidnapping at a Champion car wash, for which he received a sentence of 17 years to life.

Two weeks ago, the same appeals court rejected his appeal to 60 years to life in prison for a 2007 case involving three counts of kidnapping and two counts of rape in Warren. Both sentences are to be served consecutively at Marion Correctional Institution.

In the most recent ruling, Judges Mary Jane Trapp, Eugene Lucci and John J. Eklund of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Honzu’s contention that the trial court erred in denying his request without a hearing evidence as unfounded.

Honzu was represented by public defenders during his trial, while Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Gabe Wildman handled the state’s case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan J. Sanders represented the state on appeal.

A Trumbull County jury took less than 30 minutes in October 2022 to convict Honzu of five felony charges related to the 2007 sexual assault of a woman who was walking near the old Powerhouse Bar in the Northwest Section of the city. Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice also found Honzu to be a sexually violent predator and repeat violent offender, specifications that were attached to the three counts of kidnapping and two counts of rape he- the jury decided.

The woman, according to a nurse’s document read into the record during the trial, reported being followed by an unknown person from the Powerhouse bar as she walked home around 2 a.m. on July 29, 2007. She described the man who attacked -o as having a long face with facial hair, between 32 and 34 years old and looking like TV personality David Letterman.

The man grabbed her and then pulled her off the street.