YOUNGSTOWN - A Youngstown man serving a 77-year sentence has been transferred from a state prison to the Mahoning County jail after an appeals court overturned a verdict finding him guilty of multiple sex crimes against three teenage girls.

Last week the Seventh District Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court was wrong in denying Dustin Ruiter’s request to hire a DNA expert to testify at his 2021 trial where he was found guilty of 33 counts of rape, 33 counts of sexual battery, one count of rape, and six counts of gross sexual imposition.

Prosecutors claimed that the victims were 13, 14, and 15 when the alleged assaults occurred from November 2018 until June 2019.

In its ruling, the appeals court overturned all the convictions, except for the gross sexual imposition counts.  The court ordered a new trial for Ruiter with the appointment of a DNA expert.

Ruiter, 48, had been in the Mansfield Correctional Institution until Tuesday when he was brought back to Youngstown for further court proceedings.