Court widens rules about convictions

The case involved a crime committed by several gang members.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A person doesn't have to be identified as the main perpetrator of a crime to be guilty of it, only that he or she was among a group that committed the crime, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The court unanimously reinstated the delinquency verdicts of felonious assault against a juvenile identified in the ruling only as "T.K.", charges that involved a 2003 attack on a woman and her family who were celebrating a birthday.
A Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court judge found T.K. delinquent on two counts of felonious assault and one count of aggravated riot and committed him to the custody of the Ohio Department of Youth Services for no longer than 30 months. Witnesses testified that T.K. was one of several members of a gang known as Seven All who had been in an altercation with the woman's nephew.
The gang members passed around a gun and T.K. yelled "shoot," testimony showed. The woman, her nephew and a neighbor were shot but survived.
The appeal
Lawyers for T.K. appealed the ruling and a panel of the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals, by a 2-1 vote, overturned the assault counts because the majority said the evidence "was so riddled with conflicting testimony" that neither the shooter nor the intended victim could be identified.
However, the Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Justice Alice Robie Resnick, said the court has held that prosecutors need not identify the principal nor the target in a crime to convict on the grounds of complicity.
"The juvenile court's uncertainty over the identity of the intended targets in this case is essentially immaterial," Resnick wrote.
County Prosecutor William Mason's office was pleased that the court stuck with precedent in the case, spokeswoman Michele Tolar said. Jodi Wallace, a lawyer representing T.K., said she was disappointed but not surprised by the ruling.