Timothy Otto News Today

The Michigan Court of Appeals vacated the conviction in 2023, saying it was improperly based on the unsafe condition of his truck and not the manner in which he operated it.

The appeals court overturned the conviction, as it appeared it was the first time in Michigan someone was convicted of a high felony for driving a substandard vehicle.

The state Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision last Thursday overturned the conviction because it was based not on Otto's driving but the unsafe condition of the trailer-pulling dump truck Otto was driving that crashed into a vehicle at an intersection, causing a backhoe and the trailer tip onto a car in which Giana Giannini was the passenger.

Judge Edward Servitto ruled in favor of the prosecution in the case of Timothy Otto of Chesterfield Township, who was charged with second-degree murder, reckless driving causing death and vehicular manslaughter for the death of 10-year-old Giana Giannini. The second-degree murder charge was dismissed, and Otto's reckless driving causing death conviction was reversed Thursday by the state Court of Appeals.

The Michigan Court of Appeals threw out a conviction in the traffic death of a 10-year-old girl in Warren, saying the Legislature didn’t intend to turn bad brakes into a crime.

Appeals Court judges Noah P. Hood and Elizabeth L. Gleicher in a 17-page opinion released Friday accuse prosecutors of 'riffing on equivocal language' of the law and call their theory 'novel,' the first time anyone in the state has been convicted of reckless driving under it.

A Hastings man was charged with arson and concealing a dead body in December in connection with the death of Kyle David Hamilton who was found burned in Jaycee Park

A Hastings man has been charged with arson and concealing a dead body in connection with the death of Kyle David Hamilton in July.

The burned remains of the victim were found in a Hastings Park in July.

A suspect has been charged with in connection with the death of a man who’s body was found burned near the public boat launch in Hastings over the summer.