DAYTON — The man convicted of causing a school bus crash that killed an 11-year-old boy is asking to have his conviction reversed.
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The appeals lawyer for Hermanio Joseph appeared in the Second District Court of Appeals in Dayton on Tuesday afternoon. There, she presented reasons to a three-judge panel as to why her client should have his conviction reversed and be given a new trial in a different jurisdiction.
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Joseph, 36, was convicted by a jury of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide in May 2024 for causing to August 2023 crash that killed Aiden Clark. He was sentenced to nine to 13.5 years in prison.
His attorney, Jessica Manungo, told the panel that Joseph’s trial lawyer didn’t show that the extensive pre-trial publicity could not allow Joseph to get a fair trial in Clark County.
“There was no news videos presented, no news articles, no social media posts,” Manungo said.
Clark was one of dozens of Northwestern Local Schools students on the bus at the time of the crash. They were on the way to their first day of school.
A speeding van, driven by Joseph, crossed the center line and hit the bus head-on, causing it to roll. Clark was killed in the crash, devastating his family and the community.
Joseph had neither an Ohio driver’s license at the time of the crash nor a license from any other US state.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Joseph’s lawyer said his initial representation and the trial court judge did not ensure jurors could decide the case in an unbiased manner.
“Juror 10 says, ‘I don’t think I can be impartial.' The question is asked,” she said.
Manungo claimed the judge failed to ask follow-up questions and Juror 10 was on the jury panel.
Robert Logsdon, Clark County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, said those “who had negative interactions were removed from the panel.”
Logsdon continued to argue that the trial was handled properly and every juror included had positive or no interactions with members of the Haitian community. He also didn’t think a change of venue was necessary, saying pre-trial publicity focused most not on Joseph’s nationality, but on the shocking nature of the deadly crash.
“Family has their worst nightmare come true when they trust the safety of their child on a school bus driver and they never see their child alive again,” he said.
The appeals court panel said they would deliberate and issue a written decision, but a timeline was not given.
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