State v. McBride

Citations

• 205 N.E.3d 663
• 2023 Ohio 16

Syllabus

JUVENILE COURT – DISCRETIONARY BINDOVER – WAIVER – R.C. 2152.12 – STANDARD OF REVIEW – ABUSE OF DISCRETION – AMENABILITY: A juvenile court's amenability determination under R.C. 2152.12(B)(3) must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. While the state bears the burden of persuasion regarding a child's amenability to treatment in the juvenile system, it is not required to produce affirmative evidence of nonamenability. Where the juvenile court provided objective reasons for disregarding expert opinions that a child was amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile system, the court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the child was not amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile system and in transferring jurisdiction of the case to the court of common pleas. [But see DISSENT: the juvenile court abused its discretion by finding that a preponderance of the evidence presented at the amenability hearing weighed in favor of a transfer of jurisdiction where the juvenile court arbitrarily disregarded the opinion of two experts that the juvenile was amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile system and substituted its own assessment of the child's amenability for that of the experts.]