State v. Folson

Citations

• 205 N.E.3d 727
• 2023 Ohio 55

Syllabus

CRIMINAL DAMAGING - RESTITUTION: The trial court erred in ordering defendant to pay restitution for damages to the victim's car relating to slashed tires and syrup in the gas tank where the defendant was charged with and pleaded guilty to criminal damaging for running her car into the victim's rear bumper: those damages did not constitute economic loss because they did not flow as a natural and continuous consequence from the commission of the charged offense. [But see DISSENT: Competent, credible evidence supported the amount of restitution ordered by the trial court where strong circumstantial evidence, coupled with the lack of evidence that anyone else had caused the damage to the victim's tires and gas tank, supported the conclusion that defendant proximately caused those damages.] The trial court did not err in ordering restitution for damage to the side door of the victim's car where the complaint stated that defendant knowingly caused damage to the victim's car when she ran into it: the damage to the side door flowed as a natural and continuous consequence of the commission of the offense of criminal damaging and was a direct and proximate result of the defendant's commission of that criminal damaging.