State v. F.S.

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 1251

Syllabus

Juvenile court; competency hearing; incompetency; competency assumed; ineffective assistance of counsel; sufficient indicia of competency; probable cause hearing; bindover hearing; amenability hearing; moot; abuse of discretion. Juvenile appellant has three cases in juvenile court that were bound over to adult court. In his first assignment of error appellant appeals his convictions arguing he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel failed to raise the issue of his competency in juvenile court prior to an amenability hearing. For his first two cases, there was not sufficient indicia of incompetency such that his counsel was not ineffective for not raising the issue in juvenile court. However, his counsel was ineffective for not raising the issue of competency in his third juvenile case since there was more than sufficient indicia of incompetency at that time such that counsel should have filed a motion in the juvenile court for a competency determination. This assignment of error is sustained in part, vacated in part and remanded in part. In appellant's second assignment of error he argues the trial court abused its discretion by finding him not amenable to juvenile court and transferring his cases to adult court. We find, for his first two cases that the trial court did not abuse its discretion finding appellant was not amenable and properly transferred the two cases. For this third case we find the abuse-of-discretion determination to be moot, since the third case's amenability finding was vacated and remanded in the prior assignment of error.