Youngstown Daily Legal News

Court refuses to merge sentences for motorist who hit, dragged body of victim

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: December 31, 2012

A 10th District Court of Appeals panel recently ruled that offenses of aggravated vehicular homicide and failure to stop after an accident cannot be merged when they were committed as separate acts with separate conduct.

The three-judge appellate panel rejected Ethan Kulasa’s claims that his offenses should merge. It ruled that striking a man while fleeing the scene of an accident and then continuing to flee after dragging the victim under his SUV were two separate factors.

“His flight from the scene after he hit and dragged (Michael) Griffith was a separate act that occurred after the conduct that caused Griffith’s death. Thus, appellant did not commit the two offenses by a single act with a single state of mind,” 10th District Judge William Klatt wrote for the court.

Case summary details that Griffith called 911 around 7 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2010, to report being rear-ended on Worthington Woods Boulevard. He stated that he was hit by “a drunk” and thinking the car might leave the scene, he reported its license plate number.

The call recorded Griffith yelling “stop” twice and “an audible commotion” before it ended, according to the summary.

A nearby witness testified that she saw an SUV turn onto Worthington Galena Road with what she first thought was a garbage bag stuck underneath it. She later saw that it was a body. A second witness also testified that she saw the SUV make the turn and then saw a body near the side of the road.

The body proved to be Griffith’s, who was killed by blunt force injuries resulting from being dragged by the SUV, case summary states.

Police went to the house associated with the license plate number Griffith had reported and found Kulasa’s father, who told them Kulasa had the SUV at his mother’s apartment. When police arrived at the apartment they found Kulasa “incoherent and smelling of alcohol” and he admitted to drinking and possibly being involved in an accident. They also found a scuff mark on the SUV and a damaged turn signal consistent with amber glass found on Griffith’s car.

Dustin Cox testified that he drank with Kulasa the night before the crime and that Kulasa had driven him home to Worthington Woods Boulevard around 7 a.m.

The Franklin County Court of Common Pleas found Kulasa guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide, failure to stop after an accident and operating a vehicle under the influence. The court sentenced him to a total of 10.5 years in prison.

On appeal to the 10th District, Kulasa argued that the trial court wrongfully excluded evidence that Cox made statements prior to the trial that were inconsistent with his trial testimony.

The reviewing judges found that Cox was questioned regarding some omissions in his first interview with police and he apologized for them and stated he did not realize he had failed to mention some elements. They maintained that Cox’s admissions rendered extrinsic evidence of his pre-trial statements inadmissible.

“Accordingly, the trial court did not err when it refused to admit extrinsic evidence of Cox’s prior inconsistent statements, and we overrule appellant’s first assignment of error,” Klatt stated.

Kulasa further contended that his offenses were allied offenses of similar import and must be merged. The judges disagreed.

They held that the act of Kulasa fleeing the first collision did not cause both the vehicular homicide and the failure to stop. Fleeing the scene after committing the vehicular homicide was a second incident that resulted in the failure to stop conviction, the judges determined.

“It was appellant’s subsequent act of fleeing the scene of that incident, not the initial rear-end collision, that led to his failure to stop conviction because it was the second incident that caused Griffith’s death, not the first collision,” Klatt stated.

“Accordingly, the offenses do not merge.”

Fellow 10th District Judges Judith French and Lisa Sadler joined Klatt to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Kulasa, case No. 2012-Ohio-6021.

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