State v. Reynolds

Citations

• 2020 Ohio 942

Syllabus

SENTENCING – AUTOMOBILES/CRIMINAL – FAILURE TO STOP AFTER AN ACCIDENT: The trial court's imposition of a prison term was contrary to law where R.C. 2929.13(B)(1)(a) and (b) required the court to impose a community-control sanction because the defendant did not cause physical harm while committing the fourth-degree-felony offense of failure to stop after an accident: this court held in State v. Jones, 1st Dist. Hamilton No. C-140299, 2015-Ohio-1189, that in order to impose a prison term, the record must establish that the physical harm was caused by the failure to stop and not the accident. [But see DISSENT: This court should overrule our opinion in State v. Jones, and hold that the crime of failure to stop after an accident, as a fourth-degree felony, cannot as a matter of law be completed without the offender causing serious physical harm and knowing about that harm prior to fleeing: under Ohio law there is no felony \failure to stop offense\ that does not result in serious physical harm.]