State v. Anderson

Citations

• 2017 Ohio 8641

Syllabus

AUTOS/CRIMINAL - OVI - EVIDENCE - OPERATION: The trial court erred in convicting defendant for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs in violation of R.C. 4511.19(A)(1)(a), because the state's evidence that firefighters had found defendant overdosed in the driver's seat of a vehicle that was parked in the parking lot of a recreation center with the key in the ignition, while probative of defendant's physical control of the vehicle, was insufficient to prove he had operated the vehicle while under the influence. [But see DISSENT: An impaired person in the driver's seat of a vehicle with the key in the ignition can be convicted of operating a vehicle while under the influence if there is sufficient circumstantial evidence that he operated the vehicle while impaired: the trial court did not err in convicting defendant of operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, because a reasonable trier of fact could have found that defendant had operated the vehicle while impaired where he was found overdosed and unconscious in the driver's seat of the vehicle with the key in the ignition, no drug paraphernalia was found in the vehicle or its immediate vicinity, which the police officer testified means that the drugs had been ingested elsewhere, and defendant admitted that the vehicle had been operated but claimed that it had been operated by a woman who was not on the scene when defendant was found.]