OH: Adult Court Cannot Indict and Try 22-Year-Old for Acts He Committed as Youth

[DGUtley]

In State v. Hudson, the Court ruled the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court’s general division had no authority to indict and try a suspect who was arrested when he was 20 years old for acts he allegedly committed as a juvenile. The general division of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court had no authority to indict and try a suspect who was arrested when he was 20 years old for acts he allegedly committed as a juvenile, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office to avoid pursuing charges against Frankie Hudson Jr. in juvenile court by dropping the charges against him and refiling the charges when Hudson was 22 years old. Writing for the Court, Justice Sharon L. Kennedy stated that Ohio law is plain and unambiguous that when a juvenile suspect is arrested before turning 21 years old, the juvenile court has exclusive jurisdiction over the juvenile.

In August 2013, Hudson was about to turn 21 when he was indicted in the common pleas court general division for crimes he allegedly committed three and four years earlier. Hudson was indicted on three counts related to events from when he was a 17-year-old juvenile. The same indictment included three charges from when Hudson was an 18-year-old adult. The offenses were split into two groups and were to be tried separately. On the charges stemming from the adult offenses, Hudson was acquitted of two charges but found guilty of possessing a weapon under disability and was sentenced to three years in prison.

State Refiled Charges

In 2015, the prosecutor’s office recognized that its original indictment on the charges stemming from Hudson’s offenses as a juvenile were jurisdictionally defective. It asked the trial court to dismiss the counts without prejudice. The same day the court agreed to dismiss the charges, the prosecutor sought to have the grand jury immediately reindict Hudson for the same acts allegedly committed when he was 17. Hudson was 22 at the time of the second indictment. While those charges were pending, the grand jury indicted Hudson on additional charges, all related to acts he allegedly committed when he was over 18. Hudson sought to dismiss the last indictment, arguing the charges belonged in juvenile court and the court’s general division had no jurisdiction to try the case.

The trial court denied his request. Hudson agreed to plead no contest to the crimes he committed as a juvenile in exchange for dismissing the added adult charges. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The trial court agreed to run the sentence concurrently with sentences he was already serving for the illegal firearms conviction and unrelated cases. Hudson appealed his conviction for the juvenile charges to the Seventh District Court of Appeals, which affirmed the trial court. Hudson appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.


Adult Court Cannot Indict and Try 22-Year-Old for Acts He Committed as Youth

Opinion: State v. Hudson (ohio.gov)

[FindersKeepers]

I guess I thought that was normal.

Crimes committed under the age of 18 don't carry over to adult court. Unless, they're especially bad, like murder, and then the kid can be charged as an adult, even if he's not 18 yet.

What I don't understand is why the court would wait so long to charge him anyway?

It doesn't make sense to me not to arrest and charge someone right away if they've committed a crime.

[Common]

Thats par for the course, at one time you were considered an adult at 21, so indicting at 20yr old as a juvinle was normal.. For many years now you are considered an adult at 18. Had he been 17 the court would have allowed it

[carolina73]

This has to happen more frequently than less. 16 and 17 year olds tend to get themselves into trouble and the court systems move very slowly.

I wonder specifically what happened here to delay the process for 4 years and what made the prosecutors more aggressive.

But that 18 year old line sure is an arbitrary line in the sand for kids lives.

[RMNIXON]

The problem is that Gang recruitment begins well before 18 years of age and by that time parents (most often parent) and schools have lost control of these so called juveniles.