State v. Barfield

Citations

• 2017 Ohio 8044

Syllabus

WEAPONS UNDER DISABILITY - EVIDENCE - JUVENILE ADJUDICATION - CRIM.R. 32.1: State v. Hand, 149 Ohio St.3d 94, 2016-Ohio-5504, 73 N.E.3d 448, does not bar the use of a prior juvenile adjudication as an element of a weapons-under-disability charge, because it is the existence of the disability and not its reliability that is at issue. Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 915, 63 L.Ed.2d 198 (1980), and its progeny expressly permit something less than a valid criminal conviction to be the underlying disability for a weapons-under-disability offense. The trial court did not err when it denied defendant's post-sentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea to a charge of having weapons while under a disability, because the \disability\ element of the offense was properly established by defendant's prior juvenile adjudications. [But see DISSENT: If a juvenile adjudication is not reliable enough to enhance a criminal sentence, it is not sufficiently reliable to alone sustain proof beyond a reasonable doubt of an element of a crime.]