COLUMBUS, Ohio -
The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that Mahoning County Common Pleas Court had no authority to indict and try a suspect who was arrested when he was 20 years old for allegedly killing a Youngstown store clerk when he was a juvenile.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office to avoid pursuing charges against Frankie Hudson Jr. in juvenile court by dropping the charges against him and refiling the charges when Hudson was 22 years old.

Writing for the Court, Justice Sharon L. Kennedy stated that Ohio law is plain and unambiguous that when a juvenile suspect is arrested before turning 21 years old, the juvenile court has exclusive jurisdiction over the juvenile.

Frankie Hudson Junior, 29, challenged his 2017 involuntary manslaughter conviction for the December 14, 2010, shooting death of Christopher Weston at the Breaden Market in Youngstown, just days before Hudson turned 18.

Weston, a father of four boys and one girl, was filling in for the store's owner when he was killed.

In 2015, three charges filed in connection with the fatal shooting were dismissed at the request of the Mahoning County Prosecutor, who then refiled the charges followed by a new indictment in 2016 on the same three charges, as well as attempted murder, intimidation, and a specification for taking part in a criminal gang.

As part of a plea agreement, Hudson pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery, and illegally having a weapon.

Hudson, already in prison for other crimes, was handed a fifteen-year sentence.

Arguing that the court didn't have jurisdiction over his case because he was 17 at the time of the offenses, Hudson appealed. However, the Seventh District Court of Appeals upheld his convictions and sentences, ruling that the criminal court could hear the case because Hudson was indicted and apprehended when he was 22 years old.

The justices sent the case back to Mahoning County Court for further proceedings.