State v. Krupp

2025 Ohio 5162
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided November 14, 2025·No. 2025-CA-6·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DARKE COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO :

: C.A. No. 2025-CA-6

Appellee :

: Trial Court Case No. 24-CRB-001-0450 v. :

: (Criminal Appeal from Municipal Court)

JOHNATHON M. KRUPP :

: FINAL JUDGMENT ENTRY & Appellant : OPINION :

...........

Pursuant to the opinion of this court rendered on November 14, 2025, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.

Costs to be paid as stated in App.R. 24.

Pursuant to Ohio App.R. 30(A), the clerk of the court of appeals shall immediately serve notice of this judgment upon all parties and make a note in the docket of the service. Additionally, pursuant to App.R. 27, the clerk of the court of appeals shall send a certified copy of this judgment, which constitutes a mandate, to the clerk of the trial court and note the service on the appellate docket.

For the court,

RONALD C. LEWIS, JUDGE

HUFFMAN, J., and HANSEMAN, J., concur.

OPINION

DARKE C.A. No. 2025-CA-6

RANDALL E. BREADEN, Attorney for Appellant JOSHUA M. KUNKEL, Attorney for Appellee

LEWIS, J.

{¶ 1} Defendant-Appellant Johnathon M. Krupp appeals from a judgment of the Darke County Municipal Court finding him guilty of one count of domestic violence following a bench trial. For the following reasons, the judgment of the trial court is reversed.

I. Procedural History and Facts

{¶ 2} On November 15, 2024, a complaint was filed charging Krupp with one count of domestic violence in violation of R.C. 2919.25(A), a misdemeanor of the first degree. Krupp entered a not guilty plea and the case proceeded to a bench trial. The following testimony was adduced at trial.

{¶ 3} T.K., Krupp’s ex-wife, testified that she and Krupp were married for ten years and had two children together. The couple divorced in April 2023. Custody of the children was exchanged on a “week on, week off” basis. On Friday, November 8, 2024, the parents met at the Dollar General in Arcanum, Ohio, to exchange their children. At that time, their daughter “Isabel” was 5 years old, and their son “Jacob” was 11 years old.1

{¶ 4} When T.K. arrived with the children for the exchange, she was running late and pulled up next to Krupp’s van, one parking space apart. The passenger side of T.K.’s vehicle was next to the driver’s side of Krupp’s van. T.K. was driving her 2001 Toyota Corolla with her mother “Lisa” and Lisa’s dog in the front seat, Jacob in the back passenger-

1 To improve readability and protect the privacy of the minor children and the victim, we use pseudonyms to refer to the children and the victim’s mother.

side seat, and Isabel in the back driver’s-side seat. Jacob got out of T.K.’s car and into the front passenger seat of Krupp’s van. Isabel did not want to go with Krupp and started crying. She got on the floor in the back of T.K.’s car and refused to leave. Krupp initially told T.K. to keep their daughter, but T.K. refused because it was “a Court-ordered document that [they] need to uphold [their] normal custody agreements.” Trial Tr. 16 (“Tr.”). Krupp tried to get Isabel out of T.K.’s car from the rear passenger side, but Isabel exited the driver’s side and T.K. picked her up. T.K. then took Isabel over to Krupp’s van and placed her in a booster seat in the rear driver’s side of the vehicle. The van had a sliding rear door on both sides of the vehicle. T.K. did not buckle Isabel into the seat.

{¶ 5} Once Isabel was in the booster seat, she tried to jump out of the car and get to T.K. Krupp attempted to put Isabel’s seat belt on, but she was throwing a tantrum and trying to get out of the van. Krupp held her down to prevent her from leaving the van. According to T.K., Krupp’s left hand “was directly across [Isabel’s] right shoulder, thumb was across her collar bone with his fingers pressed on the back part of her shoulder” holding her in the booster seat. Tr. 28. T.K. heard Isabel say “ow, Daddy, that hurts.” Tr. 20. T.K. tried to grab Krupp’s right arm to “pull him away” and tell him that he needed to let go of Isabel, but he shrugged her off. Tr. 15. T.K. was standing directly next to Krupp on his right-hand side because she was “grabbing onto his arm to try to get him off of [their] daughter.” Tr. 29. T.K. then grabbed Krupp’s arm or shoulder again to get Krupp off Isabel “because he was holding her down, to which he turned around and shoved [T.K.] into [her] car.” Tr. 9. T.K. stated that when Krupp shoved her against the passenger side of her car, she took two steps back into the parking space. Her head hit the top of her vehicle, her left shoulder hit the mirror, and her ankle hit the bottom of the car. She did not fall to the ground because the

car blocked her from falling. There were no injuries to her back, but there were injuries to her leg.

{¶ 6} Krupp then closed the driver’s-side sliding door of the van, got into the vehicle, and tried to back out of the parking space. Isabel, who was not yet buckled in her seat, jumped out of the passenger side of the van and ran to T.K. Krupp left the scene, and T.K.’s mother called the police.

{¶ 7} T.K. took Isabel to Dayton Children’s to get examined. T.K. then went to Miami Valley North to get medical treatment for herself. T.K. had x-rays and CT scans taken of her head and shoulder, which turned out negative. Although the hospital did not take pictures of T.K.’s injuries, T.K. took photographs of her leg over the course of the following week, which showed swelling and bruising on her right leg.

{¶ 8} T.K.’s mother, Lisa, testified that she was at the custody exchange on November 8, 2024. Before arriving at the parking lot, her granddaughter Isabel started crying. When T.K. parked the car, the car and van were facing the same direction, parallel to one another. There was not a parking space between the vehicles. They were about three feet apart.

{¶ 9} Lisa’s grandson Jacob got out of the car and into Krupp’s van, but Isabel was on the back floor of the vehicle crying and refused to get out. Lisa took her dog outside the car to go to the bathroom. Lisa then saw Krupp unsuccessfully try to get Isabel out of the car. Lisa heard Krupp tell Isabel that he would throw away all her birthday presents and not have a birthday party. Krupp offered for T.K. to keep Isabel, but T.K. said she had to work.

{¶ 10} T.K. was eventually able to get Isabel out of her vehicle, despite the child crying and saying that she did not want to go with Krupp. T.K. then took Isabel to Krupp’s

van and put her in the booster seat. Krupp held Isabel with his left hand to try to keep her in the booster seat. Lisa was unable to see what happened at that point because she was in front of the vehicles with her dog, but she could hear her granddaughter crying. Lisa put her dog back into T.K.’s vehicle and closed the rear passenger door. Lisa heard her granddaughter crying and say “no, Daddy, that hurts, don’t do that, no, please, I want my mommy.” Tr. 47. Lisa then heard T.K. say “John, you are hurting her, let her go.” Id.

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