State v. Thompson

Summary

The Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed Damon M. Thompson’s convictions and sentences arising from two Franklin County criminal cases. The court held that the evidence supported Thompson’s conviction for complicity to failure to comply with a police officer’s order and addressed his as-applied Second Amendment challenge to Ohio’s weapons-under-disability statute. The excerpted opinion applies the manifest-weight standard and the historical-tradition framework for Second Amendment claims.

Holdings

1. The conviction was not against the manifest weight of the evidence. Thompson's repeated commands to the driver to flee, made while he jumped back into the vehicle, constituted evidence that he encouraged and incited the driver's violation and shared the requisite criminal intent.
2. R.C. 2923.13(A)(2), as applied to Thompson, was consistent with the nation's history and tradition of firearm regulation and did not violate the Second Amendment. The trial court therefore properly denied Thompson's motion to dismiss the indictment.
3. The court declined to decide the constitutionality of R.C. 2923.13(A)(3) as applied to Thompson because upholding the indictment under R.C. 2923.13(A)(2) resolved the constitutional challenge.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Thompson's conviction for complicity to failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
2. Whether R.C. 2923.13(A)(2), as applied to Thompson based on juvenile adjudications for acts that would have constituted violent felony offenses if committed by an adult, violated the Second Amendment.
3. Whether the court needed to decide the constitutionality of R.C. 2923.13(A)(3) as applied to Thompson based on his juvenile adjudication for an act that would have constituted aggravated possession of drugs.

Disposition

affirmed