Court action restores Tiffin man’s conviction
Justices rule 7-0 to reinstate decision
5/2/2013The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned an appeals court decision that had reversed a 2010 conviction of a Tiffin man for felonious assault.
The high court said it was proper for a jury to find David Deanda, who was charged with attempted murder, guilty of felonious assault because it is a lesser included offense of attempted murder based on the infliction of serious physical harm. Deanda was sentenced to seven years in prison by Seneca County Common Pleas Judge Steve Shuff for stabbing neighbor David Swartz.
“Since the desire to physically harm is a subset of, and necessarily included in, the desire to kill, and since one cannot intend to kill without also intending to cause physical harm, we conclude that felonious assault through causing series physical harm is a lesser included offense of attempted murder,” Justice William M. O’Neill wrote in the 7-0 decision.
Ohio’s 3rd District Court of Appeals last year overturned Deanda’s 2010 conviction saying felonious assault was not a lesser included offense.
The supreme court remanded the case to the appeals court to consider other errors alleged in the appeal.