State v. Adams

Summary

The Ohio Second District Court of Appeals affirmed Deshari Adams’s convictions for violating railroad-crossing requirements applicable to school buses, violating a school-bus regulation, and endangering children. The court held that sufficient evidence supported the finding that Adams failed to exercise due care under Ohio Revised Code section 4511.63 and recklessly created a substantial risk to a child under section 2919.22. The court also rejected Adams’s manifest-weight and legal-standard arguments.

Holdings

1. The conviction was supported by sufficient evidence and was not against the manifest weight of the evidence because Adams failed to exercise the due care required after stopping, looking, and listening before crossing the railroad tracks.
2. The conviction for endangering children was supported by sufficient evidence and was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.
3. The argument lacked merit because the conviction was properly based on Adams's violation of R.C. 4511.63(A), not on the withdrawn R.C. 4511.62 charge or on a statutory requirement that she stop between fifteen and fifty feet from the rail.
4. The court declined to develop or sustain Adams's challenge to the R.C. 4511.76 conviction because she did not develop an argument or cite authority addressing that offense.

Questions Presented

1. Whether sufficient evidence supported Adams's conviction under R.C. 4511.63(A) for failing to exercise due care after stopping, looking, and listening before crossing a railroad grade crossing.
2. Whether the conviction under R.C. 4511.63(A) was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
3. Whether sufficient evidence supported Adams's conviction for endangering children under R.C. 2919.22(A), and whether that conviction was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
4. Whether the trial court improperly relied on R.C. 4511.62 or administrative school-bus distance requirements in convicting Adams of violating R.C. 4511.63(A).
5. Whether Adams forfeited or failed to establish error concerning the school-bus regulation conviction under R.C. 4511.76.

Disposition

affirmed