Legal Question in Criminal Law in Ohio

Many crimes are "sub crimes" (so to speak) of other crimes. This means that the elements are the same for each crime, but there are fewer elements to the crime. For instance, if you beat someone to death with your fists, you can be charged and convicted of felonious assault and simple assault because simple assault has the same elements as felonious, except that it is not a necessary element that the victim was badly hurt.

The prosecutors do this because sometimes a jury might find that a suspect beat up another person with his fists, but not badly enough to constitute felonious assault. This way, the prosecutor could still get the suspect convicted of first degree misdemeanor simple assault even if the second degree felony felonious assault could not be proven.

While it seems unfair to be convicted for two things arising out of the same fight, the judge will make it fair by "merging" the punishments for the two charges together. For example, the judge will find you guilty on simple assault (six months penalty) and felonious assault (10 years penalty) but will only sentence you on the more serious of the two charges, letting the other sentence for the "lesser included offense" disappear. So you would never get 10 years plus 6 months after a conviction, you would instead get 10 years.