An appeals court ruling will send the case of an Akron
woman convicted for a 2010 deadly car crash back to Summit County
Common Pleas Court.
Shauntae Marie Hill is currently
serving a prison term for the death of a 5-month-old girl. On Aug. 29,
2010, Hill slammed into the passenger side of Lynette Hayward’s car and
killed Hayward’s granddaughter. In addition to a six-year prison term
for aggravated vehicular homicide, Hill was sentenced to 24 days in jail
for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and had her
driving privileges suspended for life.
In the 9th District Court
of Appeals decision, Judge Donna Carr stated that the trial court made
an error when it failed to merge Hill’s convictions for the two
offenses.
The current test for determining whether multiple
offenses constitute allied offenses for sentencing purposes is set forth
in State v. Johnson, 128 Ohio St.3d 153, 2010-Ohio-6314,” Judge Carr
wrote. “During the sentencing hearing, the trial court did not conduct
an analysis pursuant to Johnson to determine whether aggravated
vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while under the influence
were allied offenses of similar import subject to merger.
Because
of that, the case was sent back to the trial court for further action.
The appeals court rejected other claims Hill made, including that her
convictions were against the manifest weight of evidence.
“A
thorough review of the record indicates that this is not the exceptional
case where the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Hill. The weight of
the evidence supports the conclusion that Hill was intoxicated while she
was driving both before and at the time she drove into the side of
Hayward’s car,” Judge Carr wrote.
Judge Beth Whitmore agreed with the decision, while Judge Eve Belfance agreed with the judgment only.
