State v. Murphy

Citations

• 232 N.E.3d 1281
• 2023 Ohio 4825

Syllabus

Appellant was convicted of failure to stop after an accident and reckless homicide. Appellant's vehicle left the public road and struck a utility pole, and she left the scene without her vehicle, but she was not involved in a motor vehicle accident or collision with persons or property upon a public road or highway. The fact that another driver later fatally struck appellant's unoccupied vehicle in the roadway, where it had come to rest after hitting the pole, did not bring the incident within the ambit of the failure to stop statute, R.C. 4549.02, which addresses the exchange of identification and vehicle registration between parties to an accident or collision upon a public road. Accordingly, appellant's conviction for failure to stop was not supported by sufficient evidence and was against the manifest weight of the evidence. The conviction for failure to stop is reversed, including the license suspension imposed for that offense, and the matter is remanded for the trial court to file a judgment entry eliminating that offense. As such, we need not examine the trial court's imposition of consecutive sentences. In all other respects, judgment affirmed.