State v. Crosby

2019 Ohio 2217
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided June 6, 2019·No. 107392 & 107551·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

STATE OF OHIO, :

Plaintiff-Appellee, :

Nos. 107392 and 107551

v. :

DAPRI CROSBY, :

Defendant-Appellant. :

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED

RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: June 6, 2019

Criminal Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-18-626635-A

Appearances:

Michael C. O’Malley, Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, and Carson Strang, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Timothy Young, Ohio Public Defender, and Victoria Bader, Assistant State Public Defender, for appellant.

MARY J. BOYLE, P.J.:

Defendant-appellant, Dapri Crosby, appeals his convictions. He raises one assignment of error for our review:

The juvenile court abused its discretion when it determined that 17-

year[-]old Dapri was not amenable to treatment in the juvenile system, in violation of R.C. 2152.12(B); Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and Article I, Section 10, of the Ohio Constitution.

Finding no merit to his argument, we affirm.

I. Procedural History and Factual Background In March 2018, Crosby was indicted on nine counts involving four separate burglaries that took place over a one-month span in May and June 2017. The charges included four counts of burglary in violation of R.C. 2911.12(A)(2), felonies of the second degree; two counts of criminal damaging in violation of R.C. 2909.06(A)(1), misdemeanors of the second degree; two counts of theft in violation of R.C. 2913.02(A)(1), misdemeanors of the first degree; and one count of carrying a concealed weapon in violation of R.C. 2923.12(A)(2), a felony of the fourth degree. One of the criminal damaging counts contained a furthermore clause that Crosby created a risk of physical harm to the victim. Additionally, one of the burglary counts carried a one-year firearm specification and two of the charges (burglary and concealed weapon) contained a weapon-forfeiture specification.

The state requested that Crosby’s case be transferred to adult court.1 Crosby subsequently stipulated to probable cause, and the trial court held a hearing on the issue of amenability. The following facts were presented at the hearing.

1 Crosby was 17 years old at the time of the offenses, but 18 years old at the time of the amenability hearing.

Detective Michael Kitchen testified that he investigated a burglary that took place on May 21, 2017. Police obtained a fingerprint from the home, which belonged to Crosby. He stated that another person was involved in the burglary, but police were not able to identify that person.

Teresa Evans-Guyton testified that her home was burglarized on May 31, 2017. She was at work when she received an alert on her cell phone from her doorbell camera, which also sends a video. She said that she could see someone who she did not know knocking at her door. She saw another young man in the driveway and then saw a car pull up to her house with “other males.” There were four males involved. At that point, she called the police. As she was on the phone with the dispatcher, she saw three men proceed to the back of her house. A few minutes after that, while she was on the phone with the dispatcher, she got an alarm on her phone that someone had entered her back door. Evans-Guyton left work immediately. When she got there, the men were gone. They could be seen on the video running from her house and getting into the car that had pulled up earlier. Crosby could be seen in the doorbell video as the second male who rang Evans- Guyton’s doorbell. He was the only male charged in this burglary.

Evans-Guyton testified that she did not notice anything missing, but the back door to her house was damaged. Evans-Guyton stated that she was “terrified” as she “watched the entire thing unfold” and felt “violated.” She said that she has lived in her neighborhood for a long time and nothing like this had ever happened before. She said that this incident gave her a “sense of fear and dread” to come home. She has had a lot more anxiety since this incident and is “a lot more careful.”

Nancy McLaughlin testified that on June 1, 2017, she was at work when she received a call from her daughter who told her that their home security company called her to tell her that their security alarm was ringing at their house. McLaughlin did not work far from home, so she immediately drove home. While she was driving, she called the police who said they were already at her home. McLaughlin’s television was missing, but nothing else. McLaughlin explained that she had damage to two windows and a door. McLaughlin testified that she was “angry” and “scared.” She said that she had never had anything like that happen to her before this incident. After this incident, she installed alarms on her windows too. She stated that she was afraid to leave her house and is still “a little nervous about it.” Her total loss amounted to approximately $1,300.

Detective Martin Block testified that he investigated the burglary at McLaughlin’s home. He said that police were able to lift fingerprints from the scene, and one of them belonged to Crosby. Detective Block further explained that at least one other male had been charged along with Crosby.

Denise Lang testified that on June 26, 2017, someone broke into her home. She received a call about the burglary around 12:30 p.m. She left work immediately. When she arrived home, police were already there and had two suspects in custody, one of whom was Crosby. Lang’s home was in “total disarray” and had been “ransacked.” Lang stated that nothing was damaged or taken from her home. She was upset to learn that the suspects had 9 mm guns on them. Lang stated that her daughter had just left before the suspects entered her home. She said that the incident “worried” her because her two adult children are “in and out” of the home all of the time and that she still thinks about it.

Rondell Lewis testified that he is a placement aftercare coordinator for the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court. Lewis “oversees OhioGuidestone.” Crosby was placed at OhioGuidestone on October 24, 2016, which is when Lewis became his caseworker. Lewis described Crosby’s criminal history as of the time of his placement, which began in 2013 and included numerous delinquencies for receiving stolen property, theft, criminal damaging, escape, carrying a concealed weapon, obstructing official business, probation violation, and assault.

Lewis stated that Crosby was at OhioGuidestone until January 18, 2017, when he went AWOL and did not complete the program. Crosby was “discharged unsuccessfully,” but he received many services while he was there. Some of the services included Thinking for a Change, which teaches children to focus on long-term decision-making, residential treatment, drug education, anger management, and psychiatric services. Lewis explained that Crosby had only been diagnosed with conduct disorder, so he did not require a lot of psychiatric services. Crosby was also enrolled in school while he was there.

Lewis testified that prior to OhioGuidestone, Crosby was enrolled at Glen Mills School from October 17, 2015, to April 15, 2016. Lewis stated that while

Crosby did well at Glen Mills and actually completed the program, Crosby got into more trouble after he was released.

The court asked Lewis why he thought Crosby had such a difficult time with services. Lewis stated that Crosby was easily influenced by peers, like in the current cases where there were multiple codefendants or codelinquents. Lewis said that Crosby does not “stop and think * * * how his decisions are going to affect him long-term.” When he gets out of a program, he goes right back to those same peers who have a negative influence on him despite having a good support system from his aunt who has custody of him because his parents are deceased.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

State v. Crosby, 2019 Ohio 2217 (Ohio Ct. App. 2019).

2019 Ohio 2217 (State v. Crosby) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State v. Ayers-Moore
Ohio Court of Appeals, 2026
State v. Henderson
2026 Ohio 2315 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2026)
State v. F.S.
2025 Ohio 1251 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2025)
State v. Barhams
2025 Ohio 270 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2025)
State v. Taylor
2024 Ohio 5094 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2024)
State v. Foster
2023 Ohio 4308 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)
State v. Nicholson
2022 Ohio 2037 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2022)
State v. L.A.B.
2021 Ohio 4323 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
State v. Hughley
2020 Ohio 4741 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Philpot
2020 Ohio 104 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)