'Unconstitutionally excessive': Bond for woman in I-71 fatal crash reduced by $450,000
A state appeals court has reduced bond by nearly half a million dollars for a woman whose aggravated vehicular homicide convictions were overturned and is now awaiting a new trial.
Samantha Davis was found guilty in 2019 in the deaths of two people who were crushed when Davis’s pickup ramped an overpass and landed on their car as they drove south on Interstate 71.
Davis was serving an eight-year prison sentence when the First District Court of Appeals in May 2021 threw out the convictions, finding that she was deprived of effective assistance of counsel. Davis’s attorney then filed a motion for a bond hearing, so she could be released from prison while she waited for a new trial.
At a December 2021 hearing in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, a new judge assigned to the case, Judge Leslie Ghiz, set bond at $500,000.
In a 2-1 decision issued earlier this month, the appeals court said that amount was “unconstitutionally excessive” and ordered Davis’s bond reduced to $50,000 at 10 percent. Court records show her father, an HVAC technician, posted the bond on April 19.
The appeals court also said Davis, 31, should be under electronic monitoring.
Records show Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters’ office is appealing the bond reduction, and the Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to review it.
Deters has been among those who have publicly criticized an Ohio Supreme Court decision from January, DuBose v. McGuffey, that found excessive bond amounts unconstitutional.
The First District Court of Appeals said there is no evidence Davis will not appear for future court hearings. It noted that when Davis was free on a $1,000 bond for two years before her first trial, she “complied with all court orders and did not commit any new crimes.”
Half a million dollars, the appeals court said, is “higher than an amount reasonably calculated to ensure (Davis's) presence in court.”
The case against Davis dates back to 2016. Davis, then 25, was driving to her job as a server at a Sharonville restaurant. According to testimony, she was speeding in a 1995 Dodge Ram that had an underinflated rear tire she had tried to repair herself.
As she drove on the overpass leading from northbound Interstate 71 to Interstate 275 west, she lost control. An Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper who happened to be driving on the same ramp said the pickup drove directly into the concrete barrier and went over it.
The pickup landed on a car, crushing it and killing a mother and daughter who were driving to the University of Cincinnati’s graduation ceremonies.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Samantha Davis fatal crash case: Bond reduced by $450,000
